Teamsters say new EPA rules go to far

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1674801

3/22/2012

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters Rail Conference is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider tough new environmental rules for coal fired power plants. The union says the rules could negatively impact railroad workers. The mercury and air toxic standards, according to the Teamsters, has the potential to cost a staggering number of jobs by significantly reducing the amount of coal used to generate electricity. The union says nearly one in five railroad jobs are related to hauling coal. The EPA says forty percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants are not equipped to comply with the more stringent new requirements. Environmental groups say cutting toxic emissions from power plants is vital to air quality. Toxins from power plants also impact water quality. The Teamsters say they fully support President Obama’s high-speed rail and green jobs initiatives, but the cost of these new EPA rules is just too much for their workers to bear.

[freshwest]

1. Unless they've changed, no surprise here. Open mouth, shoot Labor in the foot:

CAMPAIGN NOTES; Teamster Sees Reagan Gaining Worker Support

Published: April 23, 1984

WASHINGTON, April 22— Jackie Presser, president of the teamsters' union, said today that he expected President Reagan to get even more support from blue-collar workers this year than he got four years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/23/us/campaign-notes-teamster-sees-reagan-gaining-worker-support.html

And from 1997:

Teamster Scandals and Republicans
or why the Republicans should just shut up

http://nathannewman.org/other/teamstersGOP.html

Did the Teamsters not learn from the Reagan years, that the EPA, EEOC, NLRB, OSHA and all the other things Reagan despised would come to bite them and all the rest of us in the behind?

I'm sorry to have to bring it up, but they don't seem to have changed the values that supported Reagan, who was the author of most of our troubles now. Because doing what's right for everyone supercedes what's just right for one group.