And now we can expect more lip service, as vulnerable Senate Democrats pretend to support the middle class coal jobs in their states, all the while allowing the Obama Administration to enact new anti-coal regulations…
The Hill: Democrats’ new coal headache
The Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule on carbon pollution is the latest headache for Democrats trying to defend a fragile Senate majority.
With many vulnerable Democrats coming from energy-producing states, Republicans argued the Obama administration’s call for power plants to cut their carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030 would cost local jobs and increase energy prices.
The Daily Caller- Report: EPA Climate Rule Will Cripple Coal Industry, Cost 224,000 Jobs
The Environmental Protection Agency’s upcoming climate rule will result in a massive decline in coal-fired power generation that will increase electricity bills and eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to a report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber found that the new EPA climate rule could cost the economy more than $50 billion per year and will dramatically reduce coal-fired power consumption. The report says that an additional 114 gigawatts of coal power could be shut down by 2030 — about 40 percent of existing coal capacity.
Coal’s share of electricity generation falls from 40 percent last year to only 14 percent in 2030. With this decline in coal-fired power comes huge increases in power prices. Americans will pay $17 billion more per year in electricity as coal-fired power is retired.
Washington Post: Tougher emissions rules dividing Democrats
The regulations, aimed at combating a rapidly changing climate by implementing state-by-state limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, will shine a spotlight on a growing division within the Democratic Party: On one side are major donors, who take a particular interest in environmental causes and are becoming increasingly important to the party. On the other are candidates from energy-producing states — where regulations on coal-fired power plants could have the most detrimental effects — whose fates will decide control of the Senate.
“Every American’s electricity bills will get more expensive, and we will force-feed those electric bills back to every Democratic candidate,” said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist working for Hagan’s and Pryor’s opponents. “When any politician gets caught making life more expensive for the middle class, he or she is in harm’s way.”