Rural Electric Co-op CEO Tells President Not to Regulate GHGs

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Glenn English exhorted President Obama to shelve plans to regulate GHGs, and warned that the cost to nonprofit power utilities if EPA regulated GHGs for mobile and stationary sources could be crippling, E&E News PM reported.

English was quoted as saying: "Don't do it. Don't bring on this glorious mess. Don't respond to a dare that will damage our economy and raise the electric bills of consumers all across this country." Speaking at the association's annual meeting, English urged its 6,000 members to lobby their lawmakers to co-sponsor legislation put forward by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to stop EPA from regulating GHGs.

English scolded Congress for supporting a cap-and-trade system. He was quoted as saying: "We're hearing more and more from those who have expertise in this field that cap and trade is dead. It's obvious why they're saying that. One is that those who are the advocates in Congress have obviously overreached."

The legislative calendar, said English, is unlikely to allow a climate change bill to pass the Senate during an election year. He was quoted as saying: "The election itself is certainly on the minds of most of our elected officials. And they fully understand that this is not a year in which the folks back home are happy."