Posted on 03/24/2015 11:58:48 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Senate Republicans are proposing a budget amendment that would let states opt out of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) controversial climate rule for power plants.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proposed the amendment Tuesday on behalf of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is up for reelection in 2016.
In order to be exempt from the rule, a governor or legislature would have to cite one of the following reasons: that the rule would hurt low-income or fixed-income households, risk electric reliability, impair investments in power plants, impair manufacturing or other sectors important to the state’s economy, decrease employment or reduce state or local government revenue.
The emissions regulation, with the EPA plans to make final this fall, is a key piece of the Obama administration’s environmental agenda. The rule aims to cut power plants’ greenhouse gases 30 percent by 2030, but Republicans and business argue it will dramatically increase energy costs.
States would be required under the EPA’s rule to submit detailed plans to meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets the EPA set for them.
“The amendment allows states to opt out without standing in the way of states that want to participate,” Caitlin Conant, a spokeswoman for Portman, said in a statement.
Portman hopes to attach the amendment to the Senate’s budget legislation, which it plans to vote on this week.
Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are co-sponsoring Portman’s proposal.
House Republicans unveiled draft legislation Monday that would provide another kind of opt-out for states. It would let governors veto any compliance plan for the rule, but would not completely shield states from complying like Portman’s amendment.
No bill needed. Just ignore.
Problem is there are already coal power plants being shut down.
How about the 10 amendment for a real reason? The EPA can go pound sand. I certainly hope that if a conservative is elected president in 2016, that the EPA will be abolished. I would love nothing more than seeing unemployment take a spike due to a bunch a fascists losing their jobs.
The EPA plans on eliminating coal fired power plants and replacing them with what? Unicorn farts?
every envirowacko is going “Kingsman” overload.
How about this for a start, and then demolish the EPA? They have no interest in doign what they were first set out to do, which was help companies do things better and more clean with a common sense approach.
"GOP amendment would let the states opt out of EPA (coal power plant) climate rule"
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
While we need to take care of the environment, it’s interesting how the Senate GOP, elected by the 17th Amendment-protected power of the people, is attempting to provide relief to the states with respect to regulations for intrastate environmental issues which the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to make in the first place.
The problem is that low-information voters go home after voting for their federal senators and watch football, oblivious to the idea that their beloved senators are woking in cahoots with the corrupt House to steal the rights of the states.
Yes siree, GOP senators are watching out for the states.
Are we having fun yet?
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear.
Open them up. Send in state trooper, national guard, etc. to force the goons to stand down. That’s what a real leader would do.
Senator Cruz indicated a desire to rid the world of the demned irs.
HOw about flushing the epa down the toilet too along with ALL its employees?
Well at least Zero did not say if you like your coal co. you can keep your coal co. The one thing he was upfront about. The only time he was ever straight forward to the population.
Yeah, states should just “opt” themselves out.
Hashtags.
How many BTU's are in the average unicorn fart? How many farts a day does a unicorn produce. What are they fed and is the cost of feeding, maintaining and fart mining cost effective? Can fart harvesting be scaled to current production requirements? Do unicorn fart combustion produce CO2 or any harmful gases? Is unicorn fart transportation feasible with existing infrastructure?
Or are unicorn farts just another uninformed liberal fantasy like wind power?
Large scale harvesting depends entirely on whether or not there are a sufficient number of individuals willing to gather Pharts in return for minimum wage and a guarantee they will stay on the the Food Stamp program for another month. It should be no problem to find a sufficient number of Phart Gathering Technicians.
Phart transportation is also no problem at all since the collection balloons only need to be gathered into appropriately cute bundles of balloons (see Phart Bundling doumentation Section D, para 3) then released so the loving, gentle, breezes of Mother Earth can unerringly carry them to the nearest Phart Burning Facility.
A large pilot Phart Burner has been successfully in operation at the BaaBaa Stwiesdan manor for over a decade already attracting balloon captured Unicorn Pharts from all over the the planet so we're dealing with a proven technology here.
Whether or not it's a liberal fantasy depends entirely on whether you're among the 98% who will freeze in the dark due to being Phart Out of Luck, or you're among the 2% who will generate hashtags and tweets about how much better things are.
I hope this clears things up a bit.
Do hashtags and tweets provide warmth or is the act of generating them itself that protects one from freezing?
No thanks. No more kicks at Lucy's football. 2014 was the last.
Those who are among the Chosen create hashtags and spew tweets while being warmed by the energy availble from sources retained for the benefit of the Leadership who will take the majority of us into a Brave New World.
Fear not, the CO2 caused by such sources is far outweighted by huge reduction in CO2 production in evil suburbs and flyover country as well as by the elimination of all travel other than by train or other approved mass transit except for the minimum requirements of the Leadership and the Chosen who perform critical functions like creating hashtags and tweeting on command.
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