McConnell Urges States Not Obey EPA On Coal

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

WH response.

“Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges that we face, and instead of offering solutions, Sen. McConnell’s alternative is an inappropriate and unfounded attempt to dictate state decisions,” said White House spokesman Frank Benenati.

<snip>

“While Sen. McConnell and the other climate deniers in Congress will do everything they can to block or hinder the administration’s progress on climate change, the administration is committed to moving forward to tackle climate change head on because science, history, and the American people are on our side,” Benenati said.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy also hit back against McConnell, saying that her agency would impose compliance plans on states if they do not do it themselves, according to Reuters.

 

[KingOrfeo]

NYT editorial:

Mr. McConnell’s call to governors to sit on their hands is a travesty of responsible leadership. What he calls “extremism” is the administration’s eminently reasonable goal to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. That pledge is the centerpiece of the climate strategy Mr. Obama hopes to present to the world in Paris in December, at the next climate summit. In that sense, Mr. McConnell’s defiance is more than the usual states’ rights rhetoric that Republicans have used to challenge other initiatives. It is an attack on this country’s credibility as a leader in the fight against climate change.

The senator’s strategy may also turn out to be ineffective. Governors who follow his advice may not get the result they want, since, under time-honored environmental law, noncompliant states could face imposition of a blanket federal alternative that is not tailored to local conditions.

Mr. McConnell has insisted for months that Mr. Obama has been waging a “war on coal,” of which the proposed power plant rules are only the latest manifestation. But the real war has been waged by the market and technology, most recently the shift to newly abundant supplies of natural gas. Across decades, extending back through the administration of Ronald Reagan, federal data show that Kentucky’s mining jobs have steadily declined by more than 50 percent since 1983.

When Mr. McConnell was asked in December by The Associated Press whether the Senate had any obligation to address the growing threat from global warming, the Republican leader’s response was woefully parochial: “Look, my first obligation is to protect my people, who are hurting as the result of what this administration is doing.”

 

[unregistered]

 

[phrodeau]

Poor Senator. He must be needing some ready cash pronto.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Typical leftists, coming out for government over reach and an Imperial Presidency to achieve their agenda, fuck the rule of law. We understand.

The rule of law is on the EPA's side here.

 

[unregistered]

 

[RjThoughts]

I wonder if Mitch has seen what coal fire residue can do forests and forest lakes, ponds, and other water. I doubt it or he'd never make such bought and paid for statements.

 

[KingOrfeo]

The EPA is overstepping it's authority, so no you're wrong.

How is regulation of power-plant emissions outside the EPA's authority? That's the kind of thing the EPA was made for.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

It's mission statement doesn't include shutting down entire established industry and over 40% of the electrical power generation capability of the United States. Nor does it include threatening the economy of the country and the well being of tens of thousands of American citizens, which is what would happen if it shut down the coal industry as Obama promised to do.

Look, nothing the EPA proposes is going to "shut it down," and you're talking about a dying industry here anyway.

Mr. McConnell has insisted for months that Mr. Obama has been waging a “war on coal,” of which the proposed power plant rules are only the latest manifestation. But the real war has been waged by the market and technology, most recently the shift to newly abundant supplies of natural gas. Across decades, extending back through the administration of Ronald Reagan, federal data show that Kentucky’s mining jobs have steadily declined by more than 50 percent since 1983.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Yes it will, Obama promised he would shut it down.

When did he promise that?

We aren't talking about a dying industry, that's bullshit. What we're looking at is another energy industry targeted for death by subversive leftists in America.

We're talking about an energy industry that is losing market share to other energy industries. That's no government plot.

 

[KingOrfeo]

And, of course all this might backfire.

McConnell’s promise was that by taking on Obama and fighting the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulations mandating steep reductions in carbon emissions, he’d help bring back Kentucky’s withering coal industry. What he conveniently overlooked is the fact that the Kentucky coal business owes its long, slow demise to simple economics: increased automation has drastically reduced the demand for labor; cheaper fuels, like natural gas, are steadily eating away at the overall demand for coal; and what coal remains in Kentucky is difficult to mine after over a century’s worth of enthusiastic digging. Rolling back a few EPA regulations won’t do much to change the industry’s grim economic outlook.

But that doesn’t mean McConnell isn’t a man of his word. He’s taking the fight to the EPA, but instead of going through Congress he’s leading an unusual effort to appeal to the states directly, encouraging them to resist implementation of the carbon regulations. McConnell’s campaign is strange not just because he’s forgoing legislation, but also because he’s straight-up asking the states to screw themselves over.

The EPA’s climate regulations ask states to submit their own plans for meeting emissions goals. If those plans aren’t in by next summer, the EPA will impose a federal plan on the noncompliant states. The thinking is that if a state develops its own proposal, it will be better tailored to the specific needs and unique characteristics of that state, whereas the federal plan will allow for far less flexibility and be more disruptive. McConnell’s plan is to encourage states to simply refuse to comply, subject themselves to the federal regulatory regime, and trust that the EPA’s climate plan will be invalidated by the courts.

That’s a tough sell. The governors who would be most inclined to fight alongside McConnell are the conservatives who believe that climate change is a giant hoax. McConnell is asking those same small-government conservatives to invite a stronger federal regulatory presence into their states, albeit temporarily. If those same governors are apt to believe that the regulations will eventually be invalidated, as McConnell argues, then it would seem to make more sense to work to minimize their impact up to the point that they’re tossed out. Just yesterday the National Governors Association announced a new program to help the states prepare their plans for complying with the EPA regulations – one of the states leading the program is deep-red Utah.

 

[unregistered]

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

There is a plot, it's why Lisa Jackson had a private email account under the name Richard Windsor, to hide her deals with environmentalists from the American people.

What "deals"?

Go to Landmark Legal Foundation and Judicial Watch for more info.

Certainly not, and I'll dismiss any cite from either unless backed up by some credible source, which will never be difficult to find if the claim is not total bullshit.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Of course not, these are the people who actually fight this shit in court, no need to read the court documents to see what's really going on.

No, there isn't, not considering LLF's track record

 

[unregistered]

 

[Disgustipated]

Commie source.

Why do you care so much about the EPA? You don't ever leave your bunker.

 

[phrodeau]

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” — Candidate Barack Obama, 
San Francisco Chronicle interview, 
January 17, 2008

“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” — Candidate Barack Obama, 
Same interview as above
“We’re going to have to cap the emission of greenhouse gasses. That means that power plants are going to have to adjust how they generate power … but a lot of us who can afford it are going to have to pay more per unit of electricity, and that means we’re going to have to change our light bulbs, we’re going to have to shut the lights off in our houses.” — Candidate Barack Obama, 
Iowa PBS interview, November 9, 2007

You were supposed to show where Obama promised to shut down the coal industry.

Fail.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Commie source.

SourceWatch is your friend.

 

[BotanyBoy]

The EPA is overstepping it's authority, so no you're wrong.

No it's not...you're just a partisan twat.

Poor Senator. He must be needing some ready cash pronto.

That's all it is...

Well now, it seems Laurence Tribe has denounced the EPA regs on coal as un-constitutional:


McConnell Urges States to Help Thwart Obama’s ‘War on Coal’

If McConnell had a (D) in front of his name you would be screaming bloody fucking murder about high treason.

Yes it will, Obama promised he would shut it down. We aren't talking about a dying industry, that's bullshit. What we're looking at is another energy industry targeted for death by subversive leftists in America.

*stamping feet* "ITS UNCAWNSTEETEWSHANALLL! CUZ I SAYZ SO!!"

There is a plot,

http://www.thelastgreatstand.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/tin-foil-hat-3.jpg
it's why Lisa Jackson had a private email account under the name Richard Windsor, to hide her deals with environmentalists from the American people. Go to Landmark Legal Foundation and Judicial Watch for more info.

Why do you care so much about the EPA? You don't ever leave your bunker.

Because he's a partisan twat.....

A die hard republican....living in California, must be miserable as fuck.

 

[RobDownSouth]

The EPA is overstepping it's authority, so no you're wrong.

That's an issue resolved by the courts, not a demagogue in the legislative branch, you fat tub of lard.