Republican Congressmen have opened up a new line of attack on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan by drawing attention to the threat the plan could cause to manatees who enjoy the warm water discharged from one of Florida’s biggest coal fired power plants.

Manatees, Florida’s state marine mammal, are gentle, slow-moving, herbivorous creatures commonly called “sea-cows”. They eat sea-grasses and live primarily in shallow warm waters along Florida’s coast.

The Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach, Fl, near Tampa Bay has operated a manatee viewing center since 1986 when people started observing manatees flocking to the warm water discharge of the newly commissioned Unit 4 power block. Unit 4 uses seawater for cooling and sends warm salt water back to the bay. The manatees lounge in the warm water and the discharge canal is a state and federally designated manatee sanctuary.

Rep. Rob Bishop, Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources confronted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe on the issue of how the EPA’s Clean Power Plan may affect the two-thirds of Florida’s manatees who rely on power plant discharge waters for warmth.

“So if EPA regulations cause this primary warm-water site to close down or substantially alter its operations, then it would adversely affect the manatee,” Bishop said. “Would that be something about which you think you need to consult with the EPA?”

Ashe agreed there would [be a] need for consultation between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the EPA “because there is a very direct and obvious impact and relationship between that water discharge and those manatees.” – As reported by the Miami Herald

Ashe attempted to place the issue in context of the overall scale of carbon dioxide emissions, but was cut-off and dismissed by the Chairman.