If the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest proposal to limit carbon dioxide emissions at power plants is approved, our cost for power will skyrocket. And that means the price you pay for electricity would rise, too.

More than a million members of electric cooperatives across the nation have expressed their opposition to the overreaching proposals by sharing comments and concerns with the EPA. We are proud that almost 36,000 of those comments came from members of electric cooperatives in Georgia.

In its official comments, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which represents the nation’s 900-plus electric cooperatives providing power to 42 million people, calls the EPA’s proposed rules “illegal, imprudent and impossible to implement.”

The NRECA goes on to say: “EPA’s aggressive approach to interpreting the statute, complete inconsistency with its own longstanding regulations and misinformed statements and Pollyannaish judgments about the electricity sector and what the emission reductions sources in that sector can actually achieve, place the rule beyond salvage. These comments explore these infirmities in detail and explain why EPA must withdraw this ill-advised proposal and start over.”

Jo Ann Emerson, CEO of NRECA, adds: “The EPA proposal asks consumers to pay more for energy and use less of it. This approach raises serious consequences for millions of Americans in rural, high-cost or low-income areas. Affordable, reliable energy is the lifeblood of every household, every business and every community in the country, so the member-owners of electric cooperatives view this plan with obvious concern. It is complex, it is costly and it is a staggering overreach of authority. That’s why NRECA joins with co-op advocates who submitted more than 1.1 million grassroots comments to EPA asking for the withdrawal of these proposals on new and existing power plants. We stand ready to work with the EPA and others to create policies promoting an ‘all of the above approach’ that are environmentally and economically responsible.”

Bottom line, we can’t afford, and you can’t afford, to cut coal out of our fuel mix. If you haven’t already done so, let your local, state and national representatives know that.