Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there won’t be any mistaking what Congress thinks about the Environmental Protection Agency when Republicans take control of the upper chamber in January.
The Kentucky Republican, responding to comments Secretary of State John Kerry made at a United Nations climate change conference in Lima, Peru, said the EPA would be in his crosshairs early next session.
“Given the change in management that’s coming to the Senate, overseas audiences may want to proceed with caution when it comes to Secretary Kerry’s recommendations and comments,” McConnell warned.
Kerry said that regulations President Obama’s EPA is rolling out that would restrict emissions from power plants will play a significant role in slowing the effects of climate change. Speaking of the future of coal-fired power plants, Kerry said the rules will “take a bunch of them out of commission.”
That rankled McConnell, whose home state hosts a sizable coal industry. Centrist Democrats and Republicans have railed against the power plant rules, which are the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s climate change agenda, and likely will attempt to roll them back in Congress.
“It will soon be very clear that Congress disagrees not only with the EPA’s unilateral actions but also with the administration’s entire international crusade against coal jobs,” McConnell said.
Nations are in Lima trying to hammer out draft text heading into formal climate change negotiations next year in Paris, where countries will seek a deal to govern emissions beyond 2020.
