Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would do “anything and everything” to stop Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal-fired power plants from going forward.
“I couldn’t be angrier about it, and whatever we can think of to try to stop it, we’re going to do,” the Kentucky Republican told the Associated Press, adding, “I know it won’t be easy with Barack Obama in the White House.”
McConnell and his Republican cohorts have attacked an EPA proposal that would limit carbon emissions from power plants in the most sweeping United States policy aimed at slowing climate change. The new GOP-controlled Senate will attempt to roll that and other regulations back, though President Obama would surely veto such attempts.
Conservatives, along with some centrist Democrats, have echoed industry concerns that the regulation would crimp economic growth and raise electricity prices. McConnell said the proposal would gut his state’s coal industry.
“Look, my first obligation is to protect my people, who are hurting as the result of what this administration is doing,” McConnell said.
The proposed rule calls for slashing power-sector emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Environmental regulations, however, are only part of what’s ailing coal-dependent communities. Cheap natural gas prices have provided stiff competition for coal — that’s especially true in Central Appalachia, where coal is more expensive to mine because the easiest stuff has already been excavated.
Supporters of the power plant rule contend it will save billions in healthcare costs by taking older, dirtier facilities offline, and that it would help slow damages from shifts in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels and extreme weather events linked to climate change.
