Sen. King predicts big U.S. Senate fight over new carbon plan
U.S. Senator Angus King is expecting backlash in the U.S. Senate over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulations to reduce carbon emissions.
“It’s going to be a hell of a fight in the Senate,” King told a business gathering in Portland this morning that met to discuss the economic benefits of state, regional and federal climate programs. “It’s going to be close,” he added about the future Senate vote on the proposed regulations.
He expects opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with democrats from coal states, who already have tagged the new plan “The Obama Energy Tax.”
King suggested that the EPA plan would have been more palatable to coal states had the Obama administration concurrently announced a significant investment in new coal technologies.
“The administration made a mistake,” he told told the approximately 150 attendees.
King said coal isn’t going away, and he’d like to see $1 billion invested in developing new technologies “in a kind of Manhattan Project” to decrease emissions.
He said the proposal is a big deal, and “is the way we should be regulating, rather than by prescription.” The plan leaves the states responsible for implementing solutions to meet the proposal’s goals.
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