WASHINGTON – President Obama announced his goals for taking on climate change this week, and leaders of the House Energy and Commerce responded to the plan, which includes regulations on new and existing fossil-fuel power plants and expanding taxpayer spending for more climate activities across the federal government.

E&C Committee leaders said in a press release that they intend to hold hearings to further examine the president’s climate change plan and its anticipated economic impacts.

“The president’s war on affordable energy is a war on jobs. We have weathered a very difficult economy the last five years and we are still not out of the woods. Punishing abundant American energy will threaten jobs, hobble our manufacturing resurgence, and cause electricity costs to go up — hurting folks in Middle America the most,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).

“In 2008, the president stated that he would bankrupt the coal industry. Over the past four and a half years, his administration has vigorously pursued this goal through cap-and-trade legislation and a swarm of costly new EPA regulations,” said Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY). “The president’s action plan seeks to limit our nation’s fuel choices and make coal-fired electricity generation in this country extinct, despite the fact that coal is our largest source of electricity and one of the nation’s most abundant and affordable resources. This is absurd when you consider that man-made carbon only accounts for a very small percentage of all global emissions. We will continue our aggressive oversight over EPA’s rules to help prevent destructive consequences on jobs and the economy. 

Democrat E&C Committee leaders also weighed in on the president’s plan: “We have a moral imperative to protect the environment for our children and future generations,” said Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA). “We are at a crossroads. Every year we delay, the impacts will worsen and the costs will rise. But if we act now, we can lead the world in developing the clean energy technologies of the future.”