Cochran Continues Push To Stop EPA "Clean Power" Rule

Statement

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today became an original cosponsor of two Senate resolutions that would serve to stop the Obama administration's "Clean Power Plan"--an environmental regulatory scheme that would impose costly regulatory burdens on Mississippi.

Cochran is an original cosponsor of dual Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions of disapproval that would eliminate the regulations associated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan rule. Cochran has consistently supported congressional efforts to rein in and stop this rule.

"The EPA has spurned all reasonable criticism of this unsound regulatory scheme. The result is opposition at local, state and federal levels. These bipartisan resolutions of disapproval represent a continued effort in Congress to address those concerns," Cochran said. "I am cosponsoring these measures because rural and urban Mississippi, despite substantial taxpayer investments in so-called clean technologies, will be penalized disproportionally under this rule."

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday introduced S.J.Res.23 to use the CRA to overturn regulations on new or modified power plants. The CRA allows Congress to initiate, review, and overturn major federal rulemakings before the rules take effect.

The second resolution, S.J.Res.24, was offered by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to addresses the Clean Power Plan final rule requiring states to submit plans to control carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. The Capito resolution is related to the Affordable Reliable Electricity Now Act of 2015, which Cochran cosponsored in June.

In July, a united Mississippi congressional delegation signed a letter to the EPA, the United States Department of Agriculture, and White House Office of Management and Budget that called for an investigation into whether carbon dioxide reduction goals associated with the Clean Power Plan are achievable at a reasonable cost.

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