WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Monday that he and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) placed their resolutions of disapproval regarding the Obama Administration’s anti-coal regulations on the Senate’s calendar, meaning they could come up for a vote as early as this week.
Sen. McConnell and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) filed a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) last month that is designed to stop the White House from imposing anti-jobs regulations that attack new coal-fired energy plants and their workers, while Capito and Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) filed a separate CRA that would prevent the imposition of anti-jobs regulations that attack existing plants and their workers.
The Congressional Review Act provides Congress the ability to eliminate onerous regulations imposed by the executive branch through an expedited procedure for consideration in the Senate.
“These regulations make it clearer than ever that the President and his Administration have gone too far, and that Congress should act to stop this regulatory assault,” Sen. McConnell said. “Here’s what is lost in this Administration’s crusade for ideological purity: the livelihoods of our coal miners and their families. Folks who haven’t done anything to deserve a ‘war’ being declared upon them.”
“EPA’s regulations fail to consider the livelihoods of countless American families and communities who cannot afford fewer jobs and higher energy prices,” Sen. Capito said. ”The Administration bypassed Congress entirely when it developed this rule, and these resolutions of disapproval will give Senators an opportunity to approve or disapprove of these far-reaching regulations.”
If both CRAs are enacted into law, they would eliminate both pillars of the costly power plan even if portions of the plan have already gone into effect.
The Obama Administration’s costly power plan would consist of two major phases of implementation:
• First, the Administration has proposed and finalized a regulation that attacks existing power plants. In effect, this regulation would result in the closures of coal-fired plants throughout the country.
• Secondly, the finalized regulation would limit the construction of new coal-fired plants. This portion of the costly power plan would effectively ban coal-fired power plants from being built in the future, thus, eliminating the future potential for coal jobs in America.