WASHINGTON — Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning during a U.S. Senate hearing on climate change. He is expected to voice strong opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently announced decision to place stricter regulations on U.S. coal plants.
Strange was invited by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety. The subcommittee, of which Sen. Sessions is the Ranking Member, is holding a hearing titled “Climate Change: The Need to Act Now.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will be chairing Wednesday’s hearing. The Huffington Post recently wrote that Whitehouse “has been on a one-man quest to get the Senate to talk about climate change.” He has even encouraged environmentalist’s to make climate change “the next gay rights.”
Four individuals are expected to testify in favor of the Obama Administration’s approach, while three individuals, including Strange, will testify against.
“The Obama administration’s EPA ruling to cut carbon emissions at power plants is a direct affront to workers in states like Alabama which not only rely upon coal-fired plants to generate most of their electricity, but are also home to thousands of coal industry jobs,” Strange said shortly after the EPA announced its new round of regulations earlier this month. “Make no mistake, this ruling will cost us jobs and raise heating and cooling bills in Alabama.”
The EPA ruling mandates the State of Alabama cut power plant carbon emissions by 27 percent by 2030. More than half of all the electricity Alabama Power generates in the state comes from coal-fired plants. Additionally, more than 16,000 Alabama jobs are dependent upon the coal industry, which has an estimated $1.3 billion economic impact on the state.
A newly released study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicts the Obama administration’s environmental mandates will cost the United States more than 220,000 jobs over the next several years.
According to the study, the proposed regulations will have a disproportionate impact on southern states, where energy costs would jump by $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 plan.
“The extremist agenda of the Obama administration is forcing unwarranted higher energy costs upon Americans and further threatening an already sluggish economic recovery,” Strange said. “I am reviewing this latest burdensome mandate and will pursue every legal option to stop it.”
Based on past comments by both Whitehouse and Strange, there’s a good chance we may see some fireworks Wednesday morning.
