FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s top-ranking lawmakers have some choice words for the proposed federal regulations governing emissions from coal-fired power plants.The Environmental Protection Agency this week announced new regulations that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants 30 percentby the year 2030. The announcement has been poorly received in coal-producing states such as Kentucky—bothmajor-party U.S. Senate candidates have criticized it.Kentucky Statehouse leaders are also negative about the policy.Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Democrat, said they have a mutual dislike for the proposed changes.“There’s one thing that both the Speaker and I agree on, dumb-ass, uh, dumb-ass policy!" Stivers said.Stumbo said the regulations will hurt the country’s ability to compete with China and India, who, along with the U.S., contribute the most to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.“It is a bass-ackwards policy, if you think about it," Stumbo said. "These emerging countries, which are causing a hell of a lot more of the pollution in the future than we will be doing, are really gonna attract our jobs through cheap energy and cheap labor. Doesn’t make any sense."The EPA will take public input on the regulations before enacting a finalized version in about a year.
