19 sens question EPA methodology behind Clean Power Plan repeal

BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 10/26/17 08:55 PM EDT

Nineteen Democratic senators issued a letter to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt on Thursday, questioning his methodology and logic for repealing the Clean Power Plan.

"At seemingly every turn, the 2017 Repeal proposal uses mathematical sleights of hand to over-state the costs of industry compliance with the 2015 Rule and understate the benefits that will be lost if the 2017 repeal is finalized," the letter reads, referring to the repeal of former President Obama's landmark climate change policy.

19 Senators say Pruitt's EPA used skewed science, math to justify repealing the Clean Power Plan, now they want the agency to show its work.

Link to tweet

"Denying the science and fabricating the math may satisfy the agency's paperwork requirements, but doing so will not satisfy the requirements of the law, nor will it slow the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the inexorable rise in sea levels, or the other dire effects of global warming that our planet is already experiencing."

The letter specifically questions the repeal's stance on the health effects of pollution, the Repeal's overstatement of the cost of the Clean Power Plan, and the understatement of the plan's benefits.