Charleston, WV — Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Jon Tester (D-MT) called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise a proposed rule that would jeopardize grid reliability, harm energy workers and raise energy costs for West Virginians. In the letter, they urge EPA to ensure that power plant regulations maintain affordable, reliable power, protect West Virginia jobs and promote American energy independence.
“Recently, Congress has worked in a bipartisan manner to pass important laws advancing American innovation through promising technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture, and advanced nuclear to create additional pathways to achieve a clean energy future. Unfortunately, EPA’s recent power plant rule overestimates the current and anticipated maturity of these promising technologies, to the detriment of American workers and consumers. While we hope these technologies will be available in the near future, we cannot ask our constituents to bear the cost of that risk in the form of significantly higher utility bills and unreliable electricity. A final EPA power plant rule must reflect these realities and rely on the proven technology as we continue to pursue innovation, commercialization, and technological breakthroughs,” the Senators wrote in part.