Sen. Joe Manchin Takes Fight to EPA Clean Air Regulators | The Intelligencer

Others can direct their comments to the EPA from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today at the William S. Moorehead Federal Building, 1000 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh. In the same location, there will be a second hearing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

However, Manchin, D-W.Va., continues blasting the plan that he believes will result in escalating utility bills for Mountain State residents - and even more coal mining job losses. He mailed a letter expressing his objections to McCarthy this week.

"Forcing new coal-fired plants to meet standards when experts know that the required technology is not sustainably operational on a commercial scale makes absolutely no sense," Manchin said. "By requiring technology that has never been adequately demonstrated, the EPA is forcing an industry to shut down and consumers to pay higher utility bills."

The Obama administration claims its Clean Power Plan will cut carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent from 2005 levels, prevent at least 3,600 premature deaths, prevent 1,700 heart attacks annually and create up to $45 billion worth of "climate and health benefits" per year.

In the letter, Manchin points out that the EPA's New Source Performance Standards for new coal-fired plants in the United States are based largely off the perceived success of the Boundary Dam CCS Project, a still-developing carbon capture and storage power plant in Canada. Manchin does not believe this is a proven technology, so he does not want the standard applied to U.S. plants.

"EPA should recognize that it has erred by once again prescribing a technology that has not been adequately demonstrated, in its ongoing ambition to set a lead example for the world at the expense of the U.S. consumer," Manchin states in the letter.