EPA Administrator In North Dakota: "I Will Get Sued No Matter What I Do"
EPA Administration Gina McCarthy visited North Dakota today – she was invited by Senator Heidi Heitkamp – and things got a little testy between her and Senator John Hoeven today.
Dickinson Press reporter Bryan Horwath recorded the exchange on Twitter.
Testy exchange between Sen. John Hoeven and EPA admin Gina McCarthy. It just got real.
— Bryan Horwath (@bryan_horwath) February 28, 2014
McCarthy: "I will get sued no matter what I do." #EPAinND
— Bryan Horwath (@bryan_horwath) February 28, 2014
According to Horwath, McCarthy also said that despite the EPA’s new emissions standards there is a future for coal in America:
@GinaEPA: "In a carbon-constrained future, there is a place for coal." #EPAinND
— Bryan Horwath (@bryan_horwath) February 28, 2014
Setting for a moment that the scientific justification for policies constraining the human production of carbon is very much in doubt (despite claims of “scientific consensus” to the contrary), and setting aside President Obama’s own comments about bankrupting the coal industry, it’s hard to believe what McCarthy says about the future of coal based on policies the EPA is proposing right now.
I interviews Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann last month, and he told me that the EPA seems to have set their new emissions standards specifically so that the coal industry can’t reach them.
“It seems like they’re just picking a number that can’t be met,” he told me.
Meanwhile, Senator Heidi Heitkamp has been doing her best on social media and elsewhere to position herself as indignant when it comes to the EPA’s regulatory overreach, but it’s worth keeping in mind that Heitkamp was a vote for the President who hired Gina McCarthy and is setting the policies for the EPA.
