(CNSNews.com) - A coal country Democrat and a conservative Republican are both warning that new pollution rules issued by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday will kill U.S. jobs and hurt the economy.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has introduced a bill that would create a "fair timeframe" for power plants to comply with the rules. He accused the EPA of ignoring "the devastating impact these regulations will have on jobs and our economy, not only in West Virginia but across this nation.”

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and other toxic emissions such as arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide.

The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (dubbed the Utility MACT rule) are intended to reduce emissions by relying on “widely available, proven pollution controls” that are already in use at more than half of the nation’s coal-fired power plants, EPA said.

Older power plants that don't have modern pollution controls -- including about 40 percent of all coal-fired power plants -- face the expensive proposition of installing them -- or in some cases, shutting down.

EPA says its new standards will "level the playing field so that all plants will have to limit their emissions of mercury as newer plants already do."

The impact will be greatest in the Midwest and in the coal belt -- Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia -- where dozens of units likely will be mothballed, according to an Associated Press survey.

‘The health of our children’

"By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health -- and especially for the health of our children," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, whose own child has asthma.

"The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance."

The EPA estimates that for every dollar spent to reduce pollution from power plants, the American public will see up to $9 in health benefits.

But Manchin said the Utility MACT Rule, combined with the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that was finalized earlier this year, “are two of the most expensive regulations ever to be imposed, and every American should be concerned about their effect on energy prices, the reliability of our power supply, our coal mining industry and most importantly our families."

Manchin said his Fair Compliance Act -- which would give utilities more time to comply with the rules -- would prevent the potential loss of a million jobs, increased utility rates, and more damage to the economy.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the "job-killing" Utility MACT rule will drive up electricity rates for all consumers and increase the cost of all products that depend on electricity – "which is just about everything," he noted.

“More than sixty percent of Wisconsin’s electric power comes from coal-fired plants," Johnson said. "Eastern Wisconsin is projected to see an increase in electric rates of 22 percent as a result of this rule and the costly Cross State Air Pollution Rule, which would require states to adopt new emissions standards."

Johnson noted that on the campaign trail in 2008, Barak Obama said that if he was elected president, electricity rates would ‘necessarily skyrocket’ under his cap and trade policy, and that those who built coal-fired power plants would wind up going bankrupt.

"Now those promises will come true," Johnson said. "The Utility MACT rule promulgated by the EPA today will put many coal-fired plants out of business. This will eliminate thousands of jobs and threaten the reliability of our electrical grid, while delivering very little in the way of health benefits."

President Obama issued a memo saying he expects U.S. firms and workers to “provide much of the equipment and labor needed to meet the substantial investments in pollution control that the standards are expected to spur.”

He also said the regulations must be followed in a “cost-effective manner that ensures electric reliability.”

According to the EPA, existing plants generally will have up to four years if they need it to comply with the new regulations.