© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Senator Blunt Says More EPA Regulation Will Be Costly For Missouri

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt attends a legislative priority lunch at the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City, Mo., Monday afternoon.
Elle Moxley
/
KCUR
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt attends a legislative priority lunch at the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City, Mo., Monday afternoon.
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt attends a legislative priority lunch at the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City, Mo., Monday afternoon.
Credit Elle Moxley / KCUR
/
KCUR
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt attends a legislative priority lunch at the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City, Mo., Monday afternoon.

U.S. Sen. Roy  Blunt will meet with farmers in Plattsburg, Mo., Monday afternoon to discuss a pair of new Environmental Protection Agency regulations he says will have disastrous impact on the state.

Blunt says it's not just farmers but local officials concerned about changes the Environmental Protection Agency is considering to how it enforces the  Clean Water Act.

The change would bring more waterways and streams under the EPA's jurisdiction over the objections of the American Farm Bureau.

"When the congress in the early 1970s said the EPA would have jurisdiction over 'navigable waters,' I'm confident that term, which had been used in federal law since the 1890s, didn't mean all the water that can run into all the water that can run into the water that could ever run into navigable water," says Blunt.

The EPA, meanwhile, maintains the new rule merely clarifies its existing authority to regulate streams, ponds and wetlands that flow into rivers.

Blunt's also critical of a new rule bringing the byproducts of coal-fired power plants under federal regulation the EPA approved Friday. The rule stops short of classifying coal ash as hazardous waste but is likely to drive up utility costs in states such as Missouri that are highly dependent on coal.

"The idea that there's some mythical utility company or big business that's going to absorb the incredible cost of these utility bills, the people who will be hurt the most are the ones who can barely pay their utility bill now," Blunt says.

Blunt says he's worried the new EPA rule will push energy production to countries with less oversight of coal-fired plants.

Copyright 2021 KCUR 89.3. To see more, visit KCUR 89.3.

Elle covers education for KCUR. The best part of her job is talking to students. Before coming to KCUR in 2014, Elle covered Indiana education policy for NPR’s StateImpact project. Her work covering Indiana’s exit from the Common Core was nationally recognized with an Edward R. Murrow award. Her work at KCUR has been recognized by the Missouri Broadcasters Association and the Kansas City Press Club. She is a graduate of the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism. Elle regularly tweets photos of her dog, Kingsley. There is a wounded Dr. Ian Malcolm bobblehead on her desk.