Rep. Capito: EPA should be listening to ‘West Virginia, not China’

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is firing back at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for “ignoring” certain coal-producing states during its listening tour last month.

{mosads}Capito introduced legislation on Wednesday that would prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for any foreign travel by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy until the agency holds a public listening session in 15 coal-reliant states that generated the highest percentage of electricity from coal in 2012.

In early November, the EPA held 11 listening sessions in its regional offices across the nation to solicit feedback on its planned emissions rules for existing power plants.

GOP lawmakers blasted the EPA for the tour in November, sending letters to McCarthy. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held a listening session of his own last week in his home state.

Now, Capito has renewed the fight in her new bill. She says the EPA should be listening to “West Virginia, not China.”

McCarthy is visiting China this week to discuss climate change and China’s increasing air pollution problems. The U.S. and China represent the world’s top two greatest emitters of greenhouse gases.

But Capito says U.S. federal agencies should listen to the public at home before “they set off to travel the world.”

“I am deeply disappointed in Administrator McCarthy for prioritizing traveling to Beijing over traveling to Beckley, Charleston, Madison or Moundsville,” Capito said in a statement on Wednesday.

“West Virginians and others living in coal-producing states work hard to provide our country with affordable energy, and they deserve the respect of at least being acknowledged by this administration.”