Zinke, EPA director spar over Colstrip pollution controls [Video]

New federal limits on mercury and air toxics emissions are expected to increase NorthWestern Energy power bills by $1,000 annually, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke said Tuesday, chastising EPA for the tougher limits. 

Western Montana’s Republican representative grilled EPA Administrator Michael Regan about the tighter pollution controls in a budget hearing Tuesday. Zinke’s staff later sourced the consumer costs to NorthWestern Energy.

“You’re aware that energy costs will go up by $1,000 a family. So you add $28,000, what the Bidenomics cost, and then another $1,000 a year. So where are you going to get the power when you take that offline,” Zinke said.

Regan said he “wasn’t quite sure of the underpinning of the $28,000” figure. The amount thrown around in campaign literature is a talking point from the Joint Economic Committee Republicans that suggests that Montana households spent $1,109 more per month on the same basket of goods—energy, shelter …