National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn issued the following statement with the announcement today of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Source Performance Standard, a proposed regulation for controlling greenhouse gas emissions from coal-based power plants that generate 40 percent of the nation’s electricity:
“The regulation announced today by EPA effectively bans coal from America’s power portfolio, leaving new power plants equipped with even the most efficient and environmentally advanced technologies out in the cold.
“By forcing power plants to abandon the use of the nation’s largest and most reliable source of affordable electricity, EPA is recklessly gambling with the nation’s energy and economic future. The risk will be raised if this new source standard is applied to existing power plants next year. The result will be a risky reliance on less diverse and more volatile sources of electricity, leading eventually to higher utility bills for households and businesses and significant job losses for American workers.
“EPA has also set a dangerous and far-reaching precedent for the broader economy by failing to base environmental standards on reliable technology. Although today’s story is about coal and affordable electricity, tomorrow the story will be about other industries forced to comply with arbitrary standards based on unproven technologies.
“The more responsible course for the administration is to base standards on the best-in-class technology available today. This would ensure the reliability of electricity supply by allowing power companies to replace older, less efficient plants with newer, more efficient ones.
“It would be the genuine, all-of-the-above energy policy that enjoys bi-partisan support in Congress and broad support throughout the country.”
For comments from NMA on EPA’s power plant rule, please click here – http://www.multivu.com/mnr/63063-national-mining-association-nma-epa-new-source-performance-standard