EPA Set to Finalize Expensive and Job Destroying New Regulation

ACCCE Runs Open Letter to the President in Nationwide Newspapers

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is running an open letter in newspapers across the country this week urging President Obama to consider the severe economic impacts of EPA’s Utility MACT rule, which is expected to be finalized this week. The letter, which is running in national, regional and Capitol Hill newspapers, asks the President to fix the proposed rule because the EPA doesn’t have to destroy jobs, unnecessarily increase energy prices, and jeopardize electric reliability to make the air cleaner.

"EPA's proposal would kick the economy when it's down," said Evan Tracey, senior vice president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. "Utility MACT is the most expensive rule ever written for power plants and will make it even more difficult for families, businesses and industry to recover in these rough economic times. The EPA's heavy-handed Utility MACT rule must be fixed by the President before our hope of economic recovery is dimmed further. If the President won't fix the rule, we hope Congress will step in and pass legislation that achieves environmental results without wrecking the economy."

To read the full letter from ACCCE to President Obama, please click here. The points include:

• This is the most expensive rule ever written for power plants. According to the EPA’s own analysis, this one regulation could cost as much as $130 billion. This is more than the utility industry has spent over the past four decades to comply with all of EPA’s other rules.
• An analysis by the National Economic Research Associates of the Utility MACT and other pending EPA regulations projects that 183,000 jobs per year could be destroyed, and energy prices could increase by $170 billion.
• Democrat and Republican public officials, labor unions, organizations and businesses have expressed their concerns about the economic damage Utility MACT and other EPA rules could cause.
• The EPA and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have been told by over 50 public officials, individual states, and experts that electric reliability could be in jeopardy – the first time such widespread reliability concerns have ever been raised about EPA regulations.

About ACCCEThe American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership of companies involved in producing electricity from coal. ACCCE supports energy policies that balance coal’s vital role in meeting our country’s growing need for affordable and reliable electricity with the need to protect the environment. ACCCE also advocates for the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies that will produce electricity with near-zero emissions. For more information, visit www.cleancoalusa.org or www.americaspower.org.

American Coalition for Clean Coal ElectricityLisa Camooso Miller, 703-302-1228Liz Snyder Bowman, 202-789-4365

Source: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity