By Valerie Volcovici
Forty industry groups launched a new partnership on Thursday to form a "unified strategy" to respond to forthcoming federal regulations targeting carbon emissions from the country's fleet of power plants and other carbon-intensive facilities.
Led by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy, the group will lobby local, state and national lawmakers and educate the public about what they believe will be the economic impact of future regulation.
NAM President and chief executive officer Jay Timmons and other members of the Partnership for a Better Energy Future said President Barack Obama's climate action plan, which will target domestic emissions through executive actions, such as power plant emission standards, aims to completely eliminate fossil fuels from the U.S. economy.
"To remain competitive in a global economy, manufacturers need an 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy to ensure they have access to affordable and reliable energy," Timmons said in a statement.
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Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, said the new coalition will ramp up the individual efforts of its members.
"While each of the many organizations that are part of this new partnership will continue to work with our own grassroots networks and memberships, this broad coalition will enable us to amplify and unify our efforts here in Washington and across the country," she said.
The EPA is due in June to publish a proposal to set carbon emissions standards for the country's existing fleet of power plants, which each state must carry out with individually tailored plans.
Read the full article at Reuters.