Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky unveiled a draft bill that would allow governors to veto compliance with the federal rule if the governor determines it would cause significant rate increases for electricity or harm reliability in the state.
The bill also would delay the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate rule until all court challenges are completed.
Whitfield, chairman of the energy and power subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce panel, said the EPA’s proposed rule to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants is riddled with problems and faces an uphill battle in the courts.
Whitfield and other Republicans cited testimony from an unlikely ally, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, an Obama mentor who has said the proposed EPA rule is unconstitutional.
“Burning the Constitution should not become part of our national energy policy,” Tribe told Whitfield’s subcommittee last week.
Tribe said the EPA was attempting what he called “an unconstitutional trifecta: usurping the prerogatives of the states, Congress and the federal courts — all at once.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also cited Tribe’s comments in a letter urging the nation’s 50 governors to defy Obama’s rules for power plants by refusing to submit compliance plans to Washington.
“Some have suggested recently that failing to comply with the EPA’s requirements would be to disregard the law,” McConnell wrote in a letter to all 50 governors. “But the fact is, it is the EPA that is failing to comply with the law.”
Larry Tribe selling out to the GOP aside, Whitfield's bill most likely won't even make it past the Senate. But Mitch the Turtle openly calling for states to break federal regulations and refuse to submit emissions reduction plans is cute. That of course means the EPA will do it for them, and I'm betting they'll be a lat more harsh about it.
That is of course if the regulations aren't tied up in the courts until the Obama administration ends, which is a distinct possibility. After that, who knows?
We should probably do something as voters to make sure we have a continuation of these EPA policies if we want clean air and to do something about climate change, or at least try to do something.
Or at least the rest of you should. Kentucky will never comply until forced to by the Feds.
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