The House took a parting shot at what critics say are the Obama administration’s policies to discourage coal production Friday by passing a package of bills designed to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to impose regulations on the struggling industry.
In its last vote of the session, the House voted 233-175 to approve a bundle of five bills, known as the “Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012,” that would block recent EPA efforts to regulate emissions, require the agency to consider the cost and economic impact of certain rules, and give states greater authority over pollution control.
“President Obama has spent his entire term waging a regulatory war of red tape and government mandates on coal miners, coal jobs and the millions of people who rely on low-cost coal-fired electricity,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chair Doc Hastings, Washington state Republican, after the vote.
The legislation is unlikely to reach the Senate this year, and even if it did, President Obama has indicated that he would veto it. But the House passage highlights the election-year tension between the Obama administration and the nation’s coal-mining states, several of which are also key battleground states.
Those include Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all of which are home to coal companies grappling with the EPA’s recent first-ever rule on mercury emissions and its proposed carbon-emissions standards for new coal-fueled plants.
In its last vote of the session, the House voted 233-175 to approve a bundle of five bills, known as the “Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012,” that would block recent EPA efforts to regulate emissions, require the agency to consider the cost and economic impact of certain rules, and give states greater authority over pollution control.
“President Obama has spent his entire term waging a regulatory war of red tape and government mandates on coal miners, coal jobs and the millions of people who rely on low-cost coal-fired electricity,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chair Doc Hastings, Washington state Republican, after the vote.
The legislation is unlikely to reach the Senate this year, and even if it did, President Obama has indicated that he would veto it. But the House passage highlights the election-year tension between the Obama administration and the nation’s coal-mining states, several of which are also key battleground states.
Those include Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all of which are home to coal companies grappling with the EPA’s recent first-ever rule on mercury emissions and its proposed carbon-emissions standards for new coal-fueled plants.
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