Capito seeks Senate support to block EPA's Clean Power Plan

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) spoke on the Senate floor today, condemning the Environmental Protection Agency’s final Clean Power Plan that was released Monday and urging her colleagues to support her ARENA Act bill that would block the new regulation.

“While states are given additional time to comply under the final rule, this does not change the fact that the EPA is picking winners and losers in the energy economy,” Capito, who is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee’s Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, said. “And the losers will be the American families who rely on affordable and reliable energy. We can innovate for the future, but not with a sledgehammer bearing down on us.”

Capito’s ARENA Act would delay the implementation of the Clean Power Plan until legislation against it is settled and would make the EPA determine model plans for each state to reach its target emissions reductions, which the states could opt out of if they determine it would adversely impact their economies.

“This bipartisan legislation would empower states to protect families and businesses from electricity rate increases, reduced electric reliability and other harmful effects of the Clean Power Plan,” Capito said. “It will force EPA to reconsider this misguided rulemaking.

The ARENA Act is scheduled for markup with the full EPW Committee tomorrow.

Shelley Moore Capito was elected by the people of West Virginia to the Senate in 2014.