WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants as harmful to the U.S. economy.

“Despite negative economic growth last quarter, and despite far better approaches pending in Congress to promote energy efficiency and energy innovation, the president has decided to push ahead and propose a sweeping new regulation on our still-weak economy. 

“For years, I have expressed concern that EPA’s unilateral regulations will come at a high cost and harm the affordability and reliability of our energy supply. Nothing I have seen today, including the general dismissal of concerns about the rule’s costs, has lessened my concerns. 

“This draft rule is more than 600 pages long and paired with nearly 400 pages of regulatory analysis. As a result, it’s impossible to immediately give a full reaction to what EPA has proposed. It will take time to fully review how it would impact my home state of Alaska – which EPA seems not to have considered as it developed the rule – and the rest of our country.

“As we begin our review, however, I would encourage stakeholders to remember that this is one of many rules that EPA has issued in recent years. We still do not have an accurate accounting of the cumulative costs associated with them, but we do know that EPA has dramatically underestimated plant retirements in the very recent past. 

“I am also convinced that this rule will make it even more important for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy to step up and protect the reliability and affordability of U.S. power supplies.” 

Murkowski is the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

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