On the recordMay 8, 2024
Madam President, well, here we go again. The Environmental Protection Agency is back with a barrage of rules and regulations to accomplish two main goals: kill coal and natural gas once and for all, and in doing so, appease the climate activists who the President feels he needs to keep happy in an election year. So what just happened? Well, in the last 2 weeks, the Biden EPA finalized a slate of four policies as part of their latest--and punishing--climate crusade. The first is the Clean Power Plan 2.0 that will eliminate coal power generation and block new natural gas plants from coming online in the future. The second is the updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule that is designed to put coal plants out West out of business by saddling them with unrealistic emissions requirements. The third is the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule. And the fourth is the Effluent Limitations Guidelines, sounds pretty technical, for coal plants which both impose unattainable requirements for disposing and discharging waste at these plants. The ELGs will orphan millions in investments made just in the last 4 years. So our plants have readjusted to make sure they are following, and now they come back 4 years later and say, that $300 million? No good anymore; you have to spend another $340 million. Again, this administration isn't being shy about what the desired end game is here. These rules are meant to put coal and natural gas employees out of work.…





