Sens. Manchin, Coats float bill to delay EPA rules

Paul’s resolution is slated to come up for a floor vote in the Senate Thursday. Under a rarely used maneuver called the Congressional Review Act, the resolution needs 51 votes to pass.

The White House threatened to veto Paul’s resolution Tuesday. Paul’s resolution also faces resistance in the Senate, even from some Republicans.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) says he opposes Paul’s effort.

He has introduced separate legislation with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) that would keep EPA’s cross-state rule in effect and write it into law, but give power companies an additional year to implement it. Alexander’s legislation is similar to the bill introduced Wednesday by Manchin and Coats in that it delays the compliance deadline for the cross-state rule.

“We often hear that it is the job of Congress, not the bureaucrats and courts, to set clean air rules. Our common sense legislation is an opportunity for Congress to do its job in a way that will clean the air at the lowest possible cost to ratepayers,” Alexander and Pryor state in a letter to colleagues urging their support.

Both the cross-state and utility MACT rules face intense opposition from industry, which argues that the regulations will impose huge burdens on the economy and cost jobs.

But EPA says the rules will provide massive public health benefits, preventing tens of thousands of premature deaths each year.

Manchin, a centrist Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, is a long-time critic of the EPA and climate change legislation. In a campaign ad, the former West Virginia governor famously used a gun to shoot a hole into the House-passed cap-and-trade bill. Manchin faces reelection to the Senate next year.