Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) unleashed on the Environmental Protection Agency on the Senate floor this week, vowing to “do everything in my power to rein in the EPA.”
Manchin was speaking in favor of a failed Congressional Resolution of Disapproval filed by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) to stop the EPA from implementing the Utility MACT rule, one of the most expensive rules in agency history that, according to analysts, could cost the U.S. economy up to $275 billion over the next 25 years and 1.3 million jobs over the next two decades.
“West Virginians are outraged at the ways the EPA is overstepping its bounds on regulation after regulation,” Manchin said. “…Because they’re fighting for their jobs. I’m here to fight for them.”
Calling coal miners “salt of the earth,” the senator said the day before he’d met with 45 miners and their families “to talk about the urgent need to rein in the EPA.” About three-fourths of the miners in the room had been recently laid off.
He said that his home state already implements an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that uses “a little bit of everything.”
“I’m hopeful that in the coming weeks and months we will be able to break the partisan logjam and come together across the aisle to bring a balance to our environment and economy – and develop a true comprehensive energy policy,” Manchin said.
“And in the meantime, I will continue to do everything in my power to rein in the EPA.”
Manchin, who is up for re-election in the fall, announced this week that he’s skipping September’s Democratic National Convention to be “focused on the people of West Virginia.”
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