The state’s top-ranking lawmakers have some choice words over proposed federal regulations governing emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency this week announced new regulations that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants 30 percent by the year 2030.
Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Democrat, say they have a mutual dislike for the proposed changes.
Stumbo: “You can’t formulate energy policy for a growing country like ours, if you’re not going to consider, as part of that solution, your most abundant resource. It doesn’t make any sense at all, it’s a dumbass thing to do, and you can quote me on that.”
And Stivers: “There’s one thing that both the Speaker and I agree on, dumbass, uh, dumbass policy!”
Stumbo says the regulations will hurt the country’s ability to compete with China and India, who, along with the U.S., contribute the most to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
“It is a assbackwards policy, if you think about it, he said. “These emerging countries, which are causing a helluva lot more of the pollution in the future than we will be doing, are really gonna attract our jobs through cheap energy and cheap labor. Doesn’t make any sense.”
The EPA will take public input on the regulations before enacting a finalized version in about a year.
