EUTAW, Ala. – Republican Alabama Public Service Commission candidate Chip Beeker on Thursday issued a dire warning to Alabamians as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepares to impose new regulations on power plants.
“If the EPA is allowed to act without opposition, thousands of Alabama jobs will be lost and utility rates could skyrocket beyond the means of average middle-class citizens,” Beeker said.
The former chairman of the Greene County Commission pointed to a newly released study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that predicts the Obama administration’s environmental mandates will cost the United States more than 220,000 jobs over the next several years.
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As the maps above illustrate, the new proposed regulations would have a disproportionate impact on southern states, where energy costs would skyrocket by an almost unfathomable $6.6 billion per year over the next decade-and-a-half. The “East-South-Central” region of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky would see its GDP shrink by an estimated $2.2 billion and would lose 21,400 jobs as a result of the new regulations.
“If we are going to protect jobs in Alabama, we must have Public Service Commission members who aren’t afraid to stick out their chin, hitch up their pants, and fight back against these asinine federal environmental mandates,” Beeker said.
Alabama will be especially hard hit, Beeker pointed out, because in addition to losing manufacturing sector and other jobs noted in the Chamber of Commerce study, the state’s coal industry and its 16,000 associated jobs will be in serious jeopardy.
“Coal production is not only a cornerstone of Alabama’s economy, it’s also a family tradition that generations of miners and industry workers have prided themselves upon,” Beeker said. “We cannot afford to have a Public Service Commissioner who turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the needs, concerns, and well-being of Alabama’s hard working coal mining families.”
Beeker has received the endorsement of the Alabama Coal Association in his bid to unseat incumbent Terry Dunn, who has found himself on the wrong side of many conservatives after he sided with the environmental lobby on a series of high profile issues.
Four Republican candidates are squaring off in the PSC – Place 2 primary, which is set to take place this coming Tuesday, June 3rd.
For more on the growing environmental movement in Alabama, check out Yellowhammer’s latest News 90 Seconds, where you can get all the facts in just a minute-and-a-half.
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