(AP) — Nebraska’s U.S. Sens. Mike Johanns and Deb Fischer have asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to hold a listening session in Nebraska to hear how proposed carbon regulations would affect Nebraska businesses, agriculture operations and families.

The two Republican lawmakers made the request Wednesday in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, saying that the EPA’s current schedule of listening sessions take place in states that use little coal.

The letter says Nebraska generates almost 70 percent of its electricity from coal and is an important transportation hub for coal shipments throughout the country.

Johanns says the EPA is “blind to the economic consequences their anti-coal agenda is having on rural America,” and Fischer says it’s regulations “will hurt all Nebraska families.”