Crapo: New EPA Carbon Proposal To Undermine Economy

Washington, D.C.-- Idaho Senator Mike Crapo raised objections to a 3,000-page set of sweeping proposed federal regulations issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The newly outlined rule would mandate existing power plants nationwide reduce carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030 as a part of the President's Climate Action Plan. 

"If implemented, these regulations will carry enormous economic and practical ramifications without resulting in commensurate environmental benefits," said Crapo. "The Administration's proposals threaten to undermine an important sector of our economy and the industries and jobs it supports and will ultimately result in significant increased energy costs for Idahoans.

"In what is now becoming a long list of similar initiatives, the Administration is, once again, attempting to go beyond the bounds of the intended scope of the law to advance its own far-reaching environmental agenda.  Measures such as these should be the product of rigorous debate in the halls of Congress, not imposed through Administrative dictate."

Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a report demonstrating how a rule such as the one recently released would cost nearly 225,000 jobs annually and increase the energy bills of Americans by $200.

Crapo has called on the Administration to halt the proposed rule, joining his Republican colleagues on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to express concern with the regulation's potential impacts on electricity providers, jobs and the economy in a letter to the President. Read the letter here.