Leave it to Senator Mitch McConnell to turn a powerful anti-drug slogan into a mantra for self-destruction.
The new Senate Majority Leader has been struggling to find his sea legs ever since his Republicans took over the upper chamber of Congress in January. When not locked in intractable fights with his own party in the U.S. House, McConnell’s taken loss after loss in the Senate. He wasted nearly a month of time trying to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline when he knew the President would veto the legislation anyway. In the meantime, his caucus fractured badly on votes acknowledging the basic realities of climate science, exposing his members to well-earned scorn. And, to go from the absurd to the downright bizarre, his chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee balled up some Feburary snow and threw it on the Senate floor, ostensibly to argue that climate science isn’t real but practically only earning the GOP headlines that placed them squarely in the stone age.
Yet McConnell can only blame himself for the latest embarrassment, as his attempt to attack the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever protections from carbon pollution from power plants puts himself on the wrong side of the public, the law, other conservatives and even the utilities in his own home state.
Last week, McConnell authored an op-ed last week attacking the Clean Power Plan, instructing State’s to “just say no” and not abide by the law of the land on curbing dangerous carbon pollution. In suggesting states reject carbon pollution safeguards, McConnell trotted out all of the tired attacks the fossil fuel industry has used every time they’ve been asked to clean up their act, from saying it’d raise energy bills to claiming it’d hurt American families. But, his arguments have gone over like a lead balloon, with even McConnell’s conservative allies objecting, and critics deriding his “just say no” plan “futile”, “reckless”, and “not grounded in factual understanding.” Here’s a rundown:
The Libertarian Think Tank, Niskan Center, called McConnell’s “plan” a “futile attempt to make a point” and applauded the Clean Power Plan noting that it “gives states plenty of flexibility to decide how to meet the emissions reductions dictated by the agency.”
Former US Energy Department Official Susan Tierney called McConnell’s plan “not grounded in factual understanding,” writing to the Lexington Herald-Leader that McConnell “fails to recognize the serious threats facing our public health and environment from carbon pollution. Contrary to McConnell's claims, the Clean Power Plan allows states genuine flexibility in their efforts to reduce carbon pollution — while protecting our electrical reliability and economy and taking a powerful step toward curbing carbon pollution.”
In an op-ed in Real Clear Energy, Foley & Lardner attorneys Brian H. Potts and David Zoppo fact-checked McConnell’s “plan,” and urged states to “Just Say No” to “Just Say No,”: “Before recommending this approach, however, Senator McConnell should have done his homework… refusing to comply with the rule is not going to lower energy bills—in fact, it will only make things worse. Indeed, if the Senator’s home state “just says no,” it will increase the Plan’s cost to Kentucky by a whopping 75%.”
The New York Times shredded McConnell’s suggestions in an editorial, blasting his “plan” as “reckless,” “shocking,” and a “travesty of responsible leadership.”
To make matters worse for McConnell, his own home state is even ignoring him:
Kentucky leaders think it would be “unwise” to stop working on a strategy to implement the Clean Power Plan. According to an article in Kentucky.com, “Gov. Steve Beshear's top energy and environment experts believe it would be unwise for Kentucky to stop working toward a potential plan for complying with likely new rules to limit carbon from coal-fired power plants.”
Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet says, "The overwhelming majority of our stakeholders are telling us to make preparations to submit a plan.” In an article in the Courier-Journal, Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesman Dick Brown stated, "Failing to follow through with creation of that plan means Kentucky would most likely have to abide by a federal implementation plan.”
Even Kentucky’s largest utility, Louisville Gas & Electric supports the state’s emerging Clean Power Plan strategy. According to E&E News, Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities spokeswoman Liz Pratt says, "Kentucky, as all other states should, is seeking to implement these new requirements under the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan in a manner which least impacts its residents.” (E&E News, 3/4/15)
McConnell seems to be sitting alone with his pals in the coal industry, because opinion everywhere else is quite clear: we need to just say yes to the Clean Power Plan.
-- Sierra Club Media Team