- National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn today remarked on the first anniversary of the administration’s Clean Power Plan unveiled by the president Aug. 3, 2015:
“The first year of this reckless rule shows why the Clean Power Plan (CPP) should not have a second.
“The CPP is an ill-conceived attempt to transform the nation’s power grid by a federal agency that lacks both the technical competence and the requisite legal authority to do so. On Feb. 9, the Supreme Court issued its stay, voiding any legal obligation for states to implement a rule that will impose hundreds of billions of dollars of costs on the economy, destroy valuable energy assets that will be replaced at great cost – leaving our economy more vulnerable to rising power prices – and lead to further losses of high-wage jobs in an economy that already fails to provide them for a near record number of jobless Americans. And all for an insignificant environmental benefit that appears designed to address political aspirations rather than climate change.
“For these reasons and others, 28 states to date have openly defied the administration by refusing to implement this rule by taking their grievances and EPA to court.
“In year two of the CPP, more states will appreciate that its costs greatly outweigh any conceivable benefit it provides to the country.”