McConnell schedules votes against EPA climate rules
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday placed resolutions blocking President Obama's climate change agenda on the chamber's calendar, meaning they could come up for a vote as early as this week.
"These regulations make it clearer than ever that the president and his administration have gone too far, and that Congress should act to stop this regulatory assault," the Kentucky Republican said.
McConnell was joined by resolution co-sponsors Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and coal-state Democrats Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The "resolutions of disapproval" would challenge the centerpiece of the president's climate change regulation, called the Clean Power Plan, ahead of a U.S. delegation traveling to Paris for a United Nations climate change summit Nov. 30-Dec. 11. The Environmental Protection Agency plan is the linchpin of Obama's carbon-cutting commitments in any deal to lower global emissions by the U.N.
A second resolution offered by McConnell would nullify climate rules for new power plants that the senators say "would effectively ban coal-fired power plants from being built in the future, thus, eliminating the future potential for coal jobs in America."