EPA Power Plant Carbon Regulations Late, Hostile Congress Likely To Fight Them

The EPA regulations limiting the amount of carbon that can be emitted by existing powerplants may be the most crucial step forward in environmental policy made by the eight-year Obama Administration.

But those regulations will apparently be late in arriving for public comment--and they face a notably more hostile U.S. Congress over the next two years.

DON'T MISS: EPA's Coal-Plant Emissions Rules: This Will Be The Big Fight (Jun 2014)

As Politico noted in an article last week, insiders following the agency's progress on the rule think it could miss the January 8 deadline "by months."

Indeed, the EPA hasn't even submitted the rule to the Office of Management and Budget in the White House for review, which is a process than can take up to 90 days.

And the new regulations face what is likely to be a far more hostile Congress after this fall's elections.

The U.S. House of Representatives has long attempted to limit the agency's actions.

Now the new Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell [R-KY] comes from a coal-producing state with a remarkably high-carbon electric grid.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency for 2011, the most recent year available, indicates that Kentucky has the second most carbon-intensive grid of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Its carbon footprint per kWh of energy produced is exceeded only by that of another coal producer, West Virginia.

ALSO SEE: Do New EPA Emission Rules Just Hasten Coal's Inevitable Death? (Jun 2014)