The president’s policies have failed, and are making the economy worse.  During his State of the Union, President Obama touted the need for American energy independence, and an “all-of-the-above” strategy for our domestic resources.  Unfortunately, this president’s policies are no longer just failing to give us the recovery he promised—they are preventing new well-paying jobs for American workers and have made energy independence harder to achieve. 

The assault on energy continued last week as President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed the first Clean Air Act standard governing carbon emissions for new power plants, called the New Source Performance Standard.  The rule would destroy coal-fired electricity and would likely block any new coal-fired power plants from being built in America, which would cause prices for electricity to skyrocket.  The regulation is the latest in a series of rules that are intended to “improve” our nation's energy policy under the guise of environmental regulation, driving up costs and destroying jobs.

The EPA claims that the total cost of this rule will be $0.  According to their estimates, it will have no major effect on the economy, and not a single job will be lost.  However, their cost estimates assume that the U.S. will never complete another new coal-fired project. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board ran this editorial, titled “Killing Coal,” warning about the damage  the recently announced rule, along with other actions by the Obama administration, will have on America’s domestic energy production.  According to the editorial, “the agency is conceding that coal development has been shut down as a result of its many new regulations, such as the recent mercury rule and the illegal permitting delays that a federal appeals court slapped down last week.”

For all of the time that the president spends time talking about his “all-of-the-above” energy solution, he sure is working overtime to kill the coal industry. 

Gratefully, House Republicans have taken action to put forward a true “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.  Under the American Energy Initiative, the House has approved several bipartisan bills that would remove government barriers to production and stops policies that drive up energy costs.  You can see a full list here.

For questions or further information contact Sarah Makin