The Hill reports:

(Excerpted) A major Texas-based power company said Monday it will close two coal-fired power units in the state and lay off 500 workers in order to comply with an Environmental Protection Agency air pollution regulation.

The company, Dallas-based Luminant, also filed a lawsuit aimed at overturning the regulation in the state and pushing back a deadline to comply with the new rules…

…The announcement comes amid growing resistance to EPA regulations from the country’s electric utilities. American Electric Power, for example, said in June that it will be forced to shutter five coal-fired power plants in order to comply with the agency’s pending rules.

Luminant, in a statement released Monday, said it will shut down two generating units at its Monticello power plant in order to meet requirements under EPA’s Cross-Air Pollution rule, which would limit toxic air pollution that crosses state lines in Texas and 26 other states.

The units began operation in 1974 and 1975 respectively. The move will cut the company’s generating capacity by 1,200 megawatts…

…“We have spent the last two months identifying all possible options to meet the requirements of this new rule, and we are launching a significant investment program to reduce emissions across our facilities,” Luminant CEO David Campbell said in a statement. “However, meeting this unrealistic deadline also forces us to take steps that will idle facilities and result in the loss of jobs.”…

…The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, responding to Luminant’s announcement, blasted EPA’s cross-state regulations Monday.

“These rules, imposed on Texas without adequate notice and without adequate scientific justification, will kill jobs, put the brakes on economic growth, increase energy costs and impair our energy security—all with little or no positive environmental effects,” the commission said in a statement.

“Barack Obama’s latest assault on jobs and affordable energy are more proof we need a recorded vote on the REINS Act,” said American Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson. “By farming out their attacks to nameless, faceless bureaucrats Gang Green’s puppets in Congress can shut down power plants, close down factories and eliminate jobs without taking responsibility for the destructive agenda.”

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