Andy Barr: “I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate the opportunity to address the President's Climate Action Plan that he unveiled…”

“I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate the opportunity to address the President's Climate Action Plan that he unveiled yesterday and what this really means to my fellow Kentuckians and my fellow Americans all around this country. As you see from the exhibit right here, this is the quote from the President's climate adviser: A war on coal is exactly what's needed. While Kentuckians and Americans all around this country are suffering from high unemployment--in large part due to the 5,700 coal jobs lost over the past 2 years--yesterday, the President of the United States re-declared the war on coal. We know that 1 year ago, the President, through his New Source Performance Standards regulation, imposed an effective moratorium on coal-fired power plants coming online in the future. Yesterday, the President said that he wants to apply that moratorium to the existing coal-fired fleet. Mr. Speaker, my fellow Americans, the President's Climate Action Plan reveals a leader of our country who is woefully out of touch with the economic realities facing the American working family. Unemployment is still at 7.6 percent across this country; 5 consecutive years of unemployment higher than 7.5 percent. Five years in a row where the workforce participation rate--where the percentage of Americans who are of working age population are actually in the workforce--is only 58 percent. Fifty-eight percent of all working-age people in this country have jobs. That's all.…”