Washington, D.C. – National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Hal Quinn issued this statement following the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee mark-up of the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act (ARENA Act) sponsored by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.):
“The ARENA Act is a commonsense solution to empower states to do what’s best to meet their state’s energy needs while at the same time reining in the federal government’s attempt to commandeer the nation’s power grid. This legislation will give governors the freedom to act in the interests of families and businesses in their state without the fear of the Environmental Protection Agency replacing low cost electricity with more expensive electricity.
“Absent congressional action, the EPA’s Costly Power Plan will destroy jobs, weaken reliability of the nation’s electricity grid and increase the price consumers pay for electricity. From a single provision of the Clean Air Act, EPA has fashioned cap-and-trade, carbon tax and renewable portfolio mandates for the entire country. All without the support of elected representatives of the American people. At a time when our economy is struggling from years of anemic economic recovery, the last thing our nation needs are policies that lock in low economic growth.”