Over the weekend, former Missouri Senator Kit Bond wrote in the Southeast Missourian about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which requires power plants to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.  (News coverage of the new rule here and here.)

Senator Bond writes that this new regulation will have a serious impact on coal-fired power plants:

Every time an American family turns on a light switch, heats a home in winter or air conditions that home in the summer, that family will pay higher utility bills. Workers who depend on coal-fired plants for paychecks will face unemployment when plants are closed. Rural communities that depend on tax revenue from utilities to fund schools will struggle to keep doors open for students when coal-fired facilities are shut down due to the cost of complying with EPA’s regulatory onslaught. And farmers and businesses — from the local pharmacy to drugstore — will face higher energy prices, making it more difficult to stay in business — let alone create jobs.

Senator Bond notes that, together with the Utility MACT regulations, this new rule will cost jobs. He writes,

Recent analysis from the National Economic Research Associates shows that by 2020 the cost of just two of the coming onslaught of regulations the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rules — will be the loss of 1.4 million jobs and an averageutility bill increase, of 11.5 percent — and in some cases, more than 20 percent.

For more about the EPA’s regulatory agenda, be sure the visit the NAM’s No New Regs site.

Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of the Wisconsin-based manufacturer Bucyrus, was on CNBC’s Squawkbox this morning to discuss the Export-Import Bank’s handling of the loan guarantees to support Bucyrus’ sale of mining equipment to build a mine and power plant in India. The Ex-Im Bank rejected the financing because the Indian project involved coal, in the process surrendering potentially $600 million in sales to foreign competitors and costing 1,000 U.S. jobs. As we reported last week, the decision provoked intense reaction from industry and elected officials, and the Ex-Im Bank is reconsidering its decision.

Sullivan:

I think this will get done. There has to be a memorandum of understanding with our customer that hopefully will be completed this week, and then next Thursday it will go back for a revote. I am confident, I think, because of the situation today that this deal will get down.

We’ve got four more pending, though, and those deals will not get done with the current environmental policies at U.S. Eximbank.

And later in the interview:

I have a standing invitation from [Ex-Im Bank] Chairman Hochberg to come to Washington. We’ve got to talk about the follow-on. We have to get these policies aligned with U.S. technology, not Chinese technology. Otherwise, we’re out.

And you know, if you look at what’s in the marketplace today, there’s 250 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants being constructed. That’s a billion tons of coal. We have a trillion tons of reserves of coal in 77 countries around the world. We’re going to burn coal. This puts us on the sidelines. It basically puts us out of business, and it tells manufacturers like myself, don’t expand in the United States. If you’re going to expand, go to some of the countries that have that capability to back your products.

• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Bucyrus chief dug deep for support “
• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Bank’s reversal lifts shadow over Bucyrus“