Thirteen Senators Seek to Shut Down U.S. Coal Industry
Washington, DC – According to reports , thirteen U.S. senators today urged Majority Leader Reid and the leading authors of global warming legislation, Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman, to specifically grant the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, in addition to other provisions included the bill, such as cap-and-trade and a renewable electricity mandate, which would also target coal-fired plants. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the non-partisan American Energy Alliance (AEA), released the following statement in response to the senators’ letter :
“This is just another in a long line of heavy-handed attempts to increase the government’s control over energy markets. If the signatories of this letter, clear opponents of affordable and reliable energy, really believed in the efficacy of “pricing carbon,” heavy-handed legislation would be more than enough to meet their goals.
“Apparently, it is not enough to make the price of electricity necessarily “skyrocket” through cap-and-trade legislation or a federal renewable mandate. It seems the real objective of these policymakers is to destroy the coal industry while hiding behind the EPA, an unelected bureaucracy. If these anti-energy advocates are successful in killing the coal industry, they’ll take with it affordable, reliable domestic energy and countless American jobs. EPA should be held accountable by Congress, not empowered by them.”