Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito may have been saving West Virginia’s coal sector after her Senate Democrats’ climate bill was backed by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, West Virginia. Manchin threatened to impose new coal regulations. Manchin signed an agreement that specifically authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate further coal production. This could have made the Supreme Court’s recent rulings that the Congress must authorize the agency’s activities, meaning that Manchin may not have been relevant. However, Capito asserted that the authorization did not comply with budget reconciliation rules on the Senate floor on Sunday, leading the Senate parliamentarian to eliminate the provision, according to a press release. (RELATED : ‘Egregious’: Coal Industry Leaders Condemn Manchin’s Climate Bill )
Congressional budget rules forbid measures in reconciliation bills with only incidental ” policy effects. The enforcement of these rules, which Senate Democrats tried to work around, means that the EPA will have less authority to regulate coal and also not receive an extra $45 million in funding. Capito proposed an amendment that would remove broad regulatory authority granted to the EPA by the bill. However, Manchin and other Democrats objected to it.
Manchin previously claimed that the bill did “not provide any new authority for EPA to shut down coal plants,” according to a press release on Aug. 4. Permanent excise taxes on underground coal would be added to the act. This tax will increase to $1. 10 a ton, as well as a tax on surface coal that would increase to 55 cents per ton.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) talks to Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). February 13, 2021. REUTERS/Erin Scott
The $369 billion climate bill also boosts incentives for renewable energy, which may lead to more coal plants closing as green subsidies and tax credits make it difficult for coal plants to remain profitable, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The bill is likely to be passed by the House on Friday, according to Reuters.
West Virginia is the nation’s second-largest producer of coal, accounting for 13% of the nation’s total coal output, according to the EIA. Coal mining also supported close to 27,000 jobs in the state and was responsible for $2.1 billion in employee wages in 2019, according to a West Virginia University study.
” “After the EPA’s recent loss in front of the Supreme Court over the illegal Clean Power Plan,” Capito stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation, calling coal mining “bad for West Virginia” and “bad for America I’m proud that we were able remove it from 45 according to a West Virginia University study.
Manchin did not respond immediately to the DCNF’s comment request.
This story has been updated with comments from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
