ACK! Citing Concern For The Poor, GOP Senators Ask Obama To Ax EPA Climate Rule

Citing Concern For The Poor, GOP Senators Ask Obama To Ax EPA Climate Rule

By Emily Atkin June 4, 2014 at 4:32 pm Updated: June 4, 2014 at 4:45 pm


Forty-one Republican Senators asked the Obama Administration on Wednesday to abandon its new rules limiting carbon emissions from coal plants, saying their “primary concern” is how the rules will harm the poor and the elderly.

“Our primary concern is that the rule as proposed will result in significant electricity rate increases and additional energy costs for consumers,” the senators wrote, citing a thoroughly debunked study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “These costs will, as always, fall most heavily on the elderly, the poor and those on fixed incomes.”

Released before the EPA’s rule came out, the Chamber’s study predicted the rule would cost Americans 224,000 jobs per year, $289 billion in higher electricity costs, and result in a $3,400 increase in power costs per family, among other impacts. But the study falsely assumed that the rule would be more aggressive, leading to an overstatement of costs — a fact pointed out by both the Washington Post Fact-Checker and Politifact.

It’s also notable that a large majority of the 41 Senators who signed the letter, a full list of whom can be found here, have consistently voted against policies that seek to help low-income and elderly Americans.

Except for three who did not vote, each Senator voted against raising the minimum wage of federal workers to $10.10 by 2016. All except four voted against extending unemployment insurance benefits. And only one — Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) — voted against a bill that would have taken away the guarantee of Medicare for seniors on the grounds that it would harm seniors. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) voted against it too, but only on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough.

There are also numerous reasons to believe that the rules will have an ultimately positive effect on job growth and the economy. As the EPA regulations will drive demand away from carbon-heavy electricity and into other emerging sectors like renewable electricity and energy efficiency, new jobs in those sectors — including manufacturing and construction — are expected to offset jobs lost in traditional coal power.

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http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/04/3444974/gop-poor-letter-carbon-rules/