http://www.rockefeller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3f7b4e8f-b5a3-4a11-b455-06c1ba0c32e4
The above link goes to a press release this week from Senator Jay Rockefeller. In it , he cites a GAO report that claims that the EPA is not hurting the coal industry and won't kill it.
Just tell that to Patriot Coal, who declared bankruptcy last month. Or coal fired power plants shutting down.
An interesting tidbit claims that there is nothing new in these regulations, a statement true in itself.
These Clean Air Act rulemaking actions were put in motion over two decades ago.
Former President George H.W. Bush signed the Clean Air Act Amendments
of 1990 which determined that these EPA standards would come about.
Whether President Obama is president, or if someone else was, these
standards would still be going into effect now based on the timeline
provided in the Clean Air Act Amendments and as a result of lawsuits
stemming from former President George W. Bush’s tenure.
The problem is, however, that the enforcement has changed. I have spoken to coal company CEOs that have no issue whatsoever with environmental regulations, especially those up to 1991. Under Obama, enforcement has been uneven, prejudicial, and focused more on shutting down operations than finding ways to help keep workers on the job.
Federal courts have repeatedly slammed Obama's EPA as being out of control and reaching well beyond the statutory latitude allowed by Congress.
And it's not only coal. The liberal county government of Fairfax, Virginia is fighting the EPA. Federal regulators want them to spend tens of millions to lower the water levels of creeks to protect some species of worm.
This is bureaucracy out of control.
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