In the News

By Charles Owens For The Register-Herald

BLUEFIELD — The region’s congressional delegation in Washington responded Tuesday with sharp criticism of new Environmental Protection Agency rules that could effectively prevent new coal-fired power plants from being constructed.

“It makes no sense at all, it really makes no sense,” U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said of the EPA carbon pollution standards for new power plants. “You have people shooting at you at every end, and every time you turn around they are discounting coal.”

Manchin said the new EPA rules are further proof of the administration’s war on coal. Manchin said the new rules could stop the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

“That’s their intention, but I’m not accepting that,” Manchin said. “Because it is not realistic. All they are going to do is drive the price of (energy) through the sky. It’s going to be a hardship on working families.”

Manchin said coal is still responsible for 45 percent of the nation’s energy needs. By 2035, Manchin said coal is still expected to meet 39 percent of the nation’s energy needs.

“So you are depending upon an energy source for two decades or more,” Manchin said. “As (Tuesday’s) announcement shows, this EPA is fully engaging in a war on coal, even though this country will continue to rely on coal as an affordable, stable and abundant energy source for decades to come.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said Tuesday’s ruling was another example of the Obama’ administration’s efforts to kill coal.

“Based upon the technologies we have today, this is the end of coal-fired plants,” Griffith said. “This is just the opening up of a new front on the Obama administration’s war on coal. We have to use our power at the ballot box to defeat Obama himself and his liberal allies.”

Griffith said Democrats representing coal-producing states are fighting against the EPA. However, Griffith said a “clear majority of Democrats think coal is a four-lettered word that can’t be used.”

“It’s another blow,” Griffith said. “They are trying to do everything they can to cut the legs out from under the American coal industry while our foreign competitors are increasing their use of coal and exports of coal.”

Griffith said the Energy Information Administration predicts the U.S. still has a 200-year supply of coal.

“Roughly half of the electricity in the country, slightly more in our region, is generated from coal,” Griffith said. “Coupled with last year’s utility regulations, I believe this new rule will undoubtedly lead to higher energy prices for the average American family and the average American business. If the president has his way, coal will be out of business in America.”

In a press release, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called the new rules “common-sense steps to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children and move us into a new era of American energy.”

Jackson said the EPA has determined that greenhouse gas pollution threatens American’s health and welfare by leading to long lasting changes in the planet’s climate that can have a range of negative effects on human health and the environment.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued a press release late Tuesday blasting the new EPA rules.

“This move by the EPA can lead to only one conclusion - the Obama administration is trying to end the use of coal as we know it,” Tomblin said in the prepared statement. “This regulation will devastate West Virginia and our region by reducing jobs and unnecessarily increasing the cost of power for our citizens. I will not stand for it. This latest announcement is yet another example of the EPA’s inappropriate use of its regulatory authority to set policy for our country. Those decisions reside within the Congress, not an unelected bureaucracy.”