U.S. SENATE —U.S. Senator Steve Daines today released the following statement on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator:
“I greatly appreciate the leadership Attorney General Pruitt has shown in suing to stop the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and look forward to watching him dismantle it piece by piece as EPA Administrator.”
A University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research study found the Clean Power Plan would lead to the biggest economic disaster in Montana in 30 years—including the closure of the Colstrip plant, the reduction of over 7,000 jobs, and more than a $1.5 billion loss in economic output—all for a “negligible” impact on the environment according to the EPA.
No commercially available technology can achieve the Clean Power Plan’s required level of emissions at a coal plant, and certainly not by the EPA-mandated timeline for compliance. Montana would be forced to restructure its energy economy accordingly and jeopardize the grid’s reliability while doing so. Whether through executive action or through Congress, the United States should unleash American innovation by incentivizing clean coal technology instead of wiping the industry out of business.
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