Carbon Rules Would Survive Republican President, McCarthy Says

The resolutions, which were both approved 52 to 46, were introduced under the * a href=”https://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C*P%5C_%3D%22P%20%20%0A” *Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to disapprove regulations that have an economic impact of more than $100 million. Based on past voting patterns, they would fall well short of that level. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also scheduled to vote on the measure this week.

Senator Mitch McConnell has been itching for almost two years to dismantle the Clean Power Plan with an extreme and rarely-used law called the Congressional Review Act. A few environmental groups believe that cleaner air will improve health, and will save lives. S.J. Res. 23 disapproves the EPA’s Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units, for which a final rule was issued in October.

“These reductions are the result of market forces”.

“Our particular approach to the Clean Power Plan is one of equity and inclusion to ensure that our communities are not left out of our nation’s current clean-energy revolution”, ECC Vice President, Policy & Government Affairs, Felipe Floresca said in his prepared statement. The smallest rate increase would be felt in Kansas at 0.04 percent while New Jersey and DE would experience the largest rate increases at 6.3 percent. The Clean Power Plan is likely to lower consumer costs, not raise them, because it will spur improvements in energy efficiency. The company filed its lawsuit November 16 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (LG&E and KU Energy LLC v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1418, 11/16/15). The bill has 48 co-sponsors, including Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Take the 750,000-member Evangelical Environmental Network, for example, which last week launched a radio ad calling on Senator Mark Kirk to support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

“The Administration’s latest regulatory assault has nothing to do with making our air cleaner”, Wicker said.