A report from the EPA's
public hearings on the proposed Clean Power Plan
During the week of July 28, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
held hearings in four cities: Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh, and
Washington. DC. The two-day sessions were to allow the public to have
their voice heard about the proposed rules it released on June 2 that
will supposedly cut CO2 emissions by 30 percent.
If the EPA’s plans were clear, direct, and honest, the public would
likely revolt outright. Instead, the intent is hidden in pages of
cumbersome language and the messaging becomes all about clean air and
water—and about the health of children.
Many,
including myself, believe that these rules are really an attempt to
shut down coal-fueled electricity generation and implement a
cap-and-trade program that the Administration couldn’t get through
Congress in 2009, when cap-and-trade’s obvious allies held both houses
of Congress.
Because I was in the area—speaking a few hours from Atlanta on
Sunday—I
took advantage of the proximity and signed up to speak at the hearing.
When I first attempted to sign up, day one was already full. The EPA
had so many people who wanted time to share their opinions, a second
day was added, and I was put on the schedule.
The first day, Tuesday, July 29, included competing rallies held in
near-record low temperatures for Atlanta in July. Supporters of the
EPA’s plan—many of whom were bussed in from surrounding states—gathered
in Centennial Olympic Park. I spoke at the rally, made up of plan
opponents, that was organized by Americans for Prosperity’s Georgia
chapter held at the Sam Nunn Federal Center—where the hearing was
originally scheduled (before a power outage forced a move to the Omni
Hotel).
I spent the rest of the day at the hearing. It had a circus-like
atmosphere. With tables of literature, people carrying signs, and many
of the plan’s supporters identified by their matching pale-green tee
shirts emblazoned with:
Protect our
etc,
etc,
