Bowling Green Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), a senior member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and Congressman Mike Collins (GA-10) released statements after introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution regarding Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements of unproven technologies and unachievable mandates.

“I am proud to join Congressman Collins in opposing the Biden administration’s latest unnecessary mandate that will regulate coal-powered generation out of existence. The Obama-Biden War on Coal blatantly ignores the importance coal and other fossil fuels play in helping to provide reliable and affordable sources of energy to American households. The EPA must undo these requirements which require unproven technologies and are simply not attainable for our coal-fired plants across Kentucky and the nation. Nearly 70 percent of Kentucky’s electricity generation comes from coal – this rule fails to consider alternatives that could reliably and affordably replace this much-needed electricity. We must continue to work to incorporate fossil fuels into America’s energy future, which will help play an important role in addressing expected increases in energy demand and keep the lights on for families across Kentucky and the country,” said Congressman Guthrie.

“Millions of Americans depend on safe, reliable, and affordable electricity derived from coal. The Environmental Protection Agency's revision to technology-based wastewater standards sets unworkable and unattainable limits for coal-fired power plants and is another step in the Biden administration's war on American energy,” said Congressman Collins.

The Congressional Review Act Resolution introduced by Congressman Collins and co-sponsored by Congressman Guthrie seeks to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent ruling regulating power plant discharges.

Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), the EPA sets effluent limitation guidelines and standards (ELG) for power generation facilities that utilize coal to regulate discharges of specific pollutants into U.S. waterways. These ELGs are issued as permits to power plants that set numeric limits of allowable discharges. Recognizing the necessity of reliable baseload power generation for everyday lives, Congress required EPA to set ELG limits based on “best available technology economically achievable.”

The EPA's new rule sets standards that are not technologically nor economically achievable, representing another example of this administration's stance against fossil fuels. The rule makes regulatory compliance so expensive that coal plants may have no other choice than to shut down. Plant closures would have a significant impact on communities reliant on fossil fuels for energy and would put more pressure on an already strained electric grid.

This ELG rule was finalized alongside three other expansive regulations targeting reliable and affordable fossil fuel-powered electricity generation: Clean Power Plan 2.0, Coal Combustion Residuals, and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. While electricity demand is expected to continue growing at a substantial rate, grid operators at national, regional, and state levels who are tasked with maintaining reliability of the electric grid are warning the Biden administration that their policies are leaving the country with insufficient supplies of baseload and dispatchable electricity generation.