GOP senators want Obama to pull EPA plan

Twenty-eight Republican senators are urging President Obama to withdraw new proposed carbon regulations for power plants, saying the costs of the rules will wreck the economy.

The senators are working on a letter to Obama outlining their concerns.

{mosads}“Our primary concern is that the rule as proposed will result in significant electricity rate increases and additional energy costs for consumers,” the senators wrote, according to a draft obtained by The Hill. “These costs will, as always, fall most heavily on the elderly, the poor and those on fixed incomes.”

The senators accused Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency of trying to ensure that consumers pay more for electricity, drive coal and natural gas out of the country’s energy portfolio and disregard the law as written.

“Your existing source proposal goes beyond the plain reading of the Clean Air Act, and it, like your Climate Action Plan, includes failed elements from the cap-and-trade program rejected by the United States Senate,” they wrote.

The letter’s signers included GOP Sens. David Vitter (La.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Cornyn (Texas) and John Hoeven (N.D.).

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the rule part of Obama’s “war on coal,” and said he would introduce a bill to block the regulation. Reps. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) said they’d introduce similar legislation in the house.

This story was updated at 7:57 p.m