Promise Kept: Trump to Roll Back Clean Power Plan

Via The Bluefield Daily Telegraph:

“The war on coal is over.” That’s the welcomed verdict from new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who confirmed Monday what we already know — President Donald Trump is a friend of coal. And once again the Trump administration is making good on its pledge to help those coal-producing states that were unfairly targeted by former President Barack Obama.

Pruitt said Monday that he will sign a new rule overriding the Clean Power Plan, the controversial, job-killing Obama-era rule that set emissions standards that coal-fired power plants could not reasonably meet.

“The war on coal is over,”  Pruitt declared in the coal mining state of Kentucky. “The EPA and no federal agency should ever use its authority to say to you we are going to declare war on any sector of our economy.”

 Amen. Lawmakers representing southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia have long argued that the Obama-era rules were unrealistic and unfairly targeted coal-producing states like West Virginia and Virginia.

Pruitt is expected to declare that the Obama-era rule exceeded federal law by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonably meet. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay last year that prevented the Clean Power Plan from taking effect following a legal challenge from coal-producing states, including West Virginia.

Ever since the election of Trump last November, the coal industry has seen an uptick in production. A full rollback of the job-killing Clean Power Plan will help in further boosting the industry.

Hal Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, estimates that the new Trump plan will save an estimated 240 million tons of annual coal production and safeguard more than 27,000 mining jobs and almost 100,000 additional jobs throughout the supply chain.

Excellent. Every industry job that is saved, and every new job that is created, helps our regional economy.

See the article here.

  • On October 12, 2017