Rep. Capito: EPA ‘hellbent’ on destroying jobs

{mosads}Capito represents the coal-rich state of West Virginia. Republicans have argued that EPA clean-air regulations are burdensome for coal producers, eliminate jobs and have caused the price of electricity to skyrocket.

“I think it’s troublesome,” Capito continued. “We have 9.1 percent unemployment. We can do this a better way, but it’s an agenda, an environmental agenda that is really, I think, stopping in the tracks our most abundant resource, which is coal. But it’s also into natural gas — it’s everywhere, and they’re just hellbent — excuse my language — to regulate without regard to economic impact.”

Crossfire between Republicans and the EPA have intensified in recent weeks. Last week, Jackson wrote an editorial for the Los Angeles Times called “Too Dirty to Fail?”

In it, Jackson went after Republicans, saying they were using the economy and unfounded claims about regulations as “cover” for an “unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and our nation’s waste-disposal laws.”

“Since the beginning of this year, Republicans in the House have averaged roughly a vote every day the chamber has been in session to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency and our nation’s environmental laws,” Jackson wrote. “They have picked up the pace recently — just last week they voted to stop the EPA’s efforts to limit mercury and other hazardous pollutants from cement plants, boilers and incinerators — and it appears their campaign will continue for the foreseeable future.”