Friday, June 6, 2014

Some States are Fighting Back on Obama's New EPA Regulations

..For Missouri, a state that gets 82 percent of its electricity from coal power plants, the regulations could be particularly onerous — costing not only jobs for the workers at soon-to-be closed plants but higher costs for businesses that will no longer have access to the cheap power from the coal-fired plants.
Missouri is one of a handful of states already working to undermine some of the EPA’s regulatory power before the new rules were announced Monday.
A bill passed last month by the Missouri General Assembly would give the state’s Air Conservation Commission the ability to develop state-level emissions standards in place of the new federal rules. Unlike the new standards being pushed by the EPA, the state agency would be required to take into account job losses and economic consequences such as higher energy bills.
The bill got bipartisan support in both chambers of the state Legislature and is awaiting a signature from Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.
“The actions of the Obama administration make it clear that they intend to wipe out coal as an energy source. This would be a misguided and costly action that would leave Missouri’s business and individual energy consumers on the hook for massive rate increases,” said Daniel Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, which supported the bill.
Missouri isn’t alone. Neighboring Kansas, which relies on coal for 63 percent of its electricity, has approved similar legislation.
“What we’re saying is, Let us handle greenhouse gas emissions. We think we can do it more effectively than you can at the federal level, and we want to look at all factors, including economic,” Gov. Sam Brownback said when he signed the bill into law in April...
Read the full story HERE.

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