Some Kentucky lawmakers continued to resist the science of climate change even as a top Kentucky energy official said he does not expect proposed new EPA rules to require any coal-fired power plants to shut down -- beyond those already closing to meet other regulations.

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet's John Lyons called that a "bright spot" in the proposal, which seeks to curb heat-trapping gases from existing power plants across the nation as a way to battle threats from climate change.

He said 11 coal-boilers are shutting down in the next couple of years to meet federal clean-air rules on mercury and other toxic air contaminants, and new natural gas units that use substantially less carbon dioxide are replacing them. Natural gas has become a cheaper alternative to coal, and the state requires least-cost electricity, he said.

MORE |Curbing carbon could improve air quality.

Lyons said those changes still won't get Kentucky all the way toward meeting Kentucky's goal under the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, which seeks to achieve an overall 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2005. He declined to elaborate on what else Kentucky may need to do, while also telling lawmakers that the EPA had listened to Kentucky and allowed for "maximum flexibility," which could include counting energy efficiency measures.

Lyons continued to attack an earlier proposal from the EPA to sharply limit emissions on new power plants -- a move he said would likely block any new coal plants.

Lawmakers were not hearing any good news out of Lyons' presentation at the General Assembly's joint Natural Resources and Environment Committee. They lambasted the EPA, railed against President Barack Obama, urged the Beshear administration to fight the EPA or stall for time until another president is elected, while also offering some unconventional views of climate science.

"All this stems, this carbon capture, all this other stuff, it stems back to a scare, generated years ago about global warming," said Rep. Stan Lee, a Republican from Fayette County. "Finally it turned out there hasn't been global warming in 15 or 20 years, then they changed the name to climate change."

Lee repeatedly pressed Lyons on whether Gov. Steve Beshear "agrees with President Obama, the EPA, that there is a drastic, dire need to reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions (and that) greenhouse gas emissions are going to ruin the world and we all are going to die."

That was a bit of a loaded question, even if Lee said he was trying to keep the emotion of out of his comments.

Lyons countered that the Beshear administration objected to EPA's earlier proposed regulations on new power plants and hasn't taken a position on the latest proposal for existing plants. But he said the governor and Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters agree that "man is having an impact on the climate (and) that the science is valid."

In fact, most of the leading scientific societies have reached the conclusion that human activities are causing global warming with potential serious consequences; many scientists have begun to say those changes are already making storms more powerful and droughts more severe.

And the term climate change was actually once recommended by an adviser to former President George W. Bush, a Republican, because it sounded less scary. Others prefer it because it conveys that changes are occurring as a result of global warming.

Rep. Kevin Kevin Sinnette, a Democrat from Boyd County, complained that the discussion always seems to be about "save the bees, save the trees (and) save the whales." He said climate has always been changing and the world adapts.

"The dinosaurs died," he said. "The world adjusted."

While he insisted that nobody knows why the dinosaurs died, scientists actually do have some pretty good ideas, as spelled out by the U.S. Geological Survey, and a changing climate had a lot to do with it, though none of it caused by humans because, well, there were none around back then:

There is now widespread evidence that a meteorite impact was at least the partial cause for this extinction. Impact craters are visible on most planets in our solar system. A spectacular example of this was witnessed in 1994, when Jupiter was struck by a series of cometary fragments. Some of these impact blasts were larger than the Earth's diameter. Other factors such as extensive release of volcanic gases, climatic cooling (with related changes in ocean currents and weather patterns), sea-level change, low reproduction rates, poison gases from a comet, or changes in the Earth's orbit or magnetic field may have contributed to this extinction event.

State Sen. Brandon Smith, a Republican from Hazard, accused the Beshear administration of issuing "white papers" that essentially argued for the EPA to take a flexible approach in drafting its rules for existing power plants -- and objecting to a more stringent proposal put forward by a national environmental group.

"That white paper stuff totally let EPA off the hook," Smith said, adding that people in his coal-heavy district saw it as the administration were "crushed" by it.

Lyons said the state was doing what it needed to fight a proposal that would have been bad for Kentucky.

When lawmakers urged the administration to consider resisting the rules, Lyons said that's an option. But EPA would then come to Kentucky and develop a plan for Kentucky that Kentucky residents probably would not

Smith also said something about how the Earth's and Mars' temperatures were the same. But he lost me on that, and I didn't have time to seek a clarification. Mars is actually a lot cooler than Earth.

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