Just days after a U.S. District Court shot down an agency veto of the Spruce Mine, the EPA has doubled down on its war against coal with a new set of rules which will essentially cripple the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants.
The rule, announced Tuesday, will likely derail plans for 15 new coal-fired power plants across 10 states. The proposal drew harsh criticism from industry, congressional Republicans and coal-state Democrats, while environmental groups praised EPA's move as a landmark action but also said the agency should have done more.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., blasted the EPA proposal as "wrong-headed" and said he would "fight it every step of the way." The National Mining Association said the proposal "is the latest convoy in EPA's regulatory train wreck that is rolling across America, crushing jobs and arresting our economy recovery at every step."
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he "will not stand for it." [The Obama Administration] is trying to end the use of coal as we know it," Tomblin said. "This is yet another example of EPA's inapproriate use of its regulatory authority to set policy for this country. Those decisions reside within Congress and not some un-elected bureaucracy."
Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va, called the action "irresponsible and unreasonable."
"To be energy independent, we need to have a full menu of domestic energy choices," Rahall said. "Cutting off coal at the knees, as this rule does, undercuts our energy and economic security."
Republicans Shelly Capito and David McKinley were even harsher. "Whether coal, natural gas or oil," Capito said. "this administration is intent on holding our fossil fuels hostage."
"Plain and simple, this will kill West Virginia jobs," McKinley said. "The fact that they are nonetheless proceeding with new regulations is a signal that their arrogance knows no limits."
Under the EPA proposal, new power plants would generally have to limit their carbon dioxide emissions to 1,000 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. Current facilities would be grandfathered in but the rules make it virtually impossible to add to the current fleet of coal-fired plants. Requiring the use of carbon capture and storage is not at this time viable, is disingenuous and may be illegal.
"By effectively requiring the use of carbon capture and storage technology that is not currently commercially available, EPA's standards violate the plain language of the Clean Air Act and even EPA's own standing interpretation of the statute," said William Yeatman, assistant director of the the Washington-based Center for Energy and the Environment.
“It is clear that the EPA remains an agency that, as Judge Jackson said, wants to ‘take its ball and go home’ rather than do what is right for this country and the millions of people who are out of work,” Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association said. “We should be doing everything we can to create jobs. Yet again, this agency is more concerned with paying back political favors to the radical environmental community than doing what is right for American workers.”