Largest Coal Producing State Slams Administration Over EPA Rules

The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president’s claim of having an “all of the above” energy policy.

Earlier this year, the EPA issued its Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which the agency said will eliminate 90 percent of mercury and acid gas released into the air by coal-fired power plants.

“I would say this administration is certainly unfriendly towards coal,” Wyo. Governor Matt Mead said. “And in my view it is a war on coal.”

Mead proudly pointed out that Wyoming is currently the nation’s largest coal producing state. “We export more coal than any other state by far…about 400 million tons per year. Wyoming coal produces a lot of electricity in this country,” he said.

He and others in the coal industry are concerned, however, that the EPA’s MATS rules, which go into effect in January 2016, will devastate coal production in America and force many older power plants to close because the cost of retrofitting them will be too high.

Read more from this story HERE.