Statement from National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Hal Quinn regarding today’s House Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on EPA power plant regulations and related legislation drafted by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.):
“Today Congress heard from technology experts, power plant operators and state regulators that the Environmental Protection Agency is entirely wrong in thinking that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is ready for use at power plants. These experts testified that CCS is a young, complex and unproven technology. The experts said much more work must be done to take CCS from pilot projects and field tests to fully integrated demonstrations and operations at the scale required by power plants before it is ready and reliable.
“Just because EPA believes CCS is ready doesn’t make it so, and technology experts say it isn’t. The last thing American households and businesses need is another ‘rush-before-ready’ policy that gambles with our economic and energy future. The legislation prepared by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) is a measured and much needed intervention to protect Americans from losing their affordable and reliable electricity.
“EPA recently concluded its ‘Listening Tour’ on new regulations for power plants but bypassed much of the nation that relies on coal, which is the leading source of U.S. electricity. Americans can only hope that EPA was listening today.”