The National Mining Association (NMA) commended Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today for his amendment clarifying the limits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to pressure states to accept its proposed Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants:
“We commend Majority Leader McConnell and his Senate colleagues for voting to reaffirm that EPA does not have the authority to withhold federal highway funds from states that choose to reject the agency’s costly power plan. As Leader McConnell recently argued, governors would be wise not to accept EPA’s invitation to place their citizens’ energy and economic security at risk with a state version of the EPA’s costly power plan. He correctly noted that the choice governors have under the Clean Air Act not to submit a state plan to EPA is the lowest cost and lowest risk option. EPA is asking states to do more than the federal agency is either legally or technically competent to do on its own. Leader McConnell and all senators who voted in favor of the McConnell amendment have done their constituents a great service in shielding them from the costs and dangers of EPA’s proposed power plan rule.”