In response to today’s announcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation on coal-fired power plants, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3) shared his deep concerns with the latest overreach by this agency:

“These regulations will have a devastating impact on hard-working Missourians when you consider that 80 percent of our folks rely on coal for their energy needs. At a time when Missourians are paying more for virtually everything, it is unconscionable that the president would move forward with what amounts to a national energy tax. Unfortunately, this is a tragic case in which the president has actually kept his promise that ‘electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.’ As a supporter of legislation previously passed by the House to prevent these rules from taking effect, I am calling on the president to ignore the politics behind these regulations and put our families before the liberal environmentalist lobby.”

In May, Luetkemeyer signed his name to a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting the EPA include a 120-day comment period on the rule. The letter indicated the proposal will be extremely complex and requires extra time for stakeholders to analyze and determine its impact on individual power plans and the electric system as a whole. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it is estimated that over 200,000 jobs will be lost and electricity bills will increase by $289 billion from 2014-2030.