By: Whitney Burdette
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he is not going to sit idle while the Environmental Protection Agency continues its "war on coal."
Last week, a 4th Circuit judge struck down the EPA's revocation of a mine permit in southern West Virginia. It was also last week that the EPA released new standards for coal-fired power plants that would restrict carbon dioxide emissions. In response, Tomblin issued a news release on Monday, April 2, containing a letter to the EPA that lays his ground plan for confronting the agency, which he said hurts jobs.
"We've had enough of your war on coal, because it's a war on our jobs here in West Virginia," Tomblin said in the letter. "While Americans clearly want to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, you're killing off the source of 42 percent of America's electricity, power that comes from coal we mine right here in the USA."
Tomblin went on to say that the new rule is not only bad for jobs, but also energy independence.
"This rule is bad for jobs and it's bad for energy independence," he said in the letter. "It's bad for West Virginia and it's bad for America. Kill this rule before it kills our jobs and our communities."