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States Sue Over Trump Decision to Sell Coal Leases on Federal Lands

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Four U.S. states filed a lawsuit Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s decision to restart the sale of coal leases on federal lands, saying the Obama-era block of the leasing program was reversed without studying what’s best for the environment and for taxpayers.

The attorneys general of California, New Mexico, New York and Washington, all Democrats, said bringing back the federal coal lease program without an environmental review risks worsening the effects of climate change on those states while shortchanging them for the coal taken from public lands.

“Climate change has to be considered when we are talking about compensating states and New Mexico citizens for their resources,” said Cholla Khoury, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’ director of consumer and environmental protection. (Read more from “States Sue Over Trump Decision to Sell Coal Leases on Federal Lands” HERE)

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'Game We Can’t Win': Coal States Brace for Growing Number of Plant Closures Over EPA Rules

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dcl_coal_120314The energy industry and coal-producing states are projecting a wave of power plant closures in the final two years of the Obama administration as Environmental Protection Agency regulations take hold.

The goal of the agency’s campaign is to cut down on carbon pollution. However, industry groups and agencies say the EPA’s demands are simply too difficult to meet and will lead to powering down many facilities — eliminating hundreds of jobs and hurting cash-strapped state economies.

“It’s a game we can’t win,” Alan Minier, chairman of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, told FoxNews.com.

The number of projected closures has steadily risen. Though estimates vary,according to the Institute for Energy Research a total of 37 states including Wyoming are seeing closures. The group lists nearly 170 plants that have closed or are closing, or are being converted to other purposes.

IER cites a handful of existing EPA regulations, as well as a major proposal to cut emissions from existing power plants. That calls for cutting emissions nationally by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. The plan assumes emissions can be curbed through remedial action in four general areas: improved efficiency of coal plants, enhanced energy conservation measures, increased natural gas and renewable power generation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democratic Domination of Coal Country Over?

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train cars in coalIt sure seems that way to Politico after the midterm elections. The writing has been on the wall since the Democratic Party nominated and elected a President who declared that his energy policies would “bankrupt” coal operators in a 2008 interview, but the cycle didn’t complete itself until after Barack Obama’s EPA began to pursue those policies in earnest. What used to be the heart of Democratic working-class union strength has now flipped entirely red, and probably permanently:

The Republicans’ romp this week may have permanently turned coal country from blue to red.

Coal-heavy districts in West Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois that had been steadily moving away from Democrats in recent elections appear to have completed that shift Tuesday, when they overwhelmingly backed Republicans who vowed to oppose what they call President Barack Obama’s “war on coal.” …

In West Virginia, once a long-time Democratic stronghold, Republicans will take control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1931. Republicans picked up seven seats in the state Senate to bring the balance to 17-17, and then Democrat Daniel Hall switched parties Wednesday to give the majority to the GOP.

Voters there also elected Rep. Shelley Moore Capito as their first GOP senator in 56 years, and Republicans won three congressional contests, even kicking out 38-year incumbent Rep. Nick Rahall.

Read more from this story HERE.

Soros Pushing Obama Scheme to Shut Down Coal

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Photo Credit: WNDA group of wealthy businessmen with ties to the Obama political machine has put out an email blast asking Americans to submit public comments to the EPA in favor of the president’s “aggressive plan to tackle climate change.”

The new EPA rules would slap strict regulations on power plants through a plan critics say would result in millions of lost jobs and force consumers to pay more for their electricity. The EPA is accepting comments from the public through Dec. 1.

Organizing for Action, funded by billionaire investor George Soros, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and other progressive rainmakers, asks recipients of the email to “Stand with the President” by submitting a public comment to the EPA before the deadline passes.

“Right now, the EPA is collecting public comments about President Obama’s Clean Power Plan,” the email says. It then provides a link tagged, “Add your name to make sure your voice is part of it – and we’ll make sure the EPA gets it.”

Organizing for Action, formed by Obama’s top political aides, has made climate change, amnesty for illegal aliens, abortion rights and gun control its top priorities since getting Soros and other wealthy businessmen to underwrite its agenda. Last year the group made a push for universal background checks on all gun purchases, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Humble Coal Miner Delivered Mic-Dropping Testimony at an EPA Hearing That Will Blow You Away

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Photo Credit: Free Enterprise

Photo Credit: Free Enterprise

…After a week of thousands of people giving testimonials, shouting through megaphones, and yelling about how angry they are about the situation, it was one man who gave a soft and emotional speech which stood out above the rest.

Life-long coal miner Walter Parker came to the hearings to testify on behalf of himself and his family. Walter explains that if the EPA takes away his job, the only life he and his family have ever known will be destroyed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coal Miners Union In Full Revolt After Supporting Obama In 2008

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

It’s unlikely that United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts thought he would be arrested protesting the energy policies of the very politician his union supported in 2008. But things have come full circle for coal miners, who now see President Obama’s climate agenda threatening their livelihoods.

Roberts and other UMWA members were arrested Thursday marching through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, towards the federal building the Environmental Protection Agency was holding field hearings for a new rule that could very well force more coal mines and plants to shut down.

Roberts was leading about 5,000 coal miners, their families and supporters to show the EPA that coal miners, boilermakers, electric workers and other unions did not support the Obama administration’s new regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“This was an expression by the leadership of the union and the solidarity for our members when our jobs are on the line … it’s what it’s all about,” Roberts said while being arrested.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s War On American Coal Reveals Our Manchurian President

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Photo Credit: PHOTOS.COM
President Barack Obama is with one hand kneecapping domestic coal production and with the other hand forming an alliance with Iran, America’s most dangerous adversary in the Mideast and a country that covets nuclear weapons and Mideast domination. Yet Obama and Iran’s Ayatollah are working together in partnership to stabilize the Shiite government of Iraq, which, if they are successful, will secure crude oil from that region and re-establish Tehran’s dominance.

Presidents have been making deals with Mideast dictators for decades, so in itself there may be nothing wrong with Obama’s actions. It seems so clearly wrong that as Obama orders military advisers back into Iraq and prepares airstrikes, his Administration is issuing proclamations against domestic coal producers, which harvest America’s richest energy resource and provide tens of thousands of jobs that are desperately needed.

If one didn’t know better, one might think this is all part of our President’s plan to cripple U.S. energy independence, a plan to leave America in critical need of Mideast influence and crude.

King Coal Cut Down By Obama

Coal provides America with 70 percent of its electricity. You might think that coal would be valued by Obama because it provides so many well-paying jobs and that it would be the natural energy source for electricity to charge electric cars. (What never seems to compute to so many of the idiot Greens is that there has to be a basis for the charge for the electric car and that electricity, like everything else, isn’t free.)

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: EPA Chief Delights Bill Maher by Admitting to a ‘War on Coal’

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Photo Credit: YouTube Gina McCarthy, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was on Bill Maher’s show and clarified the department’s position on coal:

Bill Maher: “Some people called it a war on coal. I hope it is a war on coal. Is it?”

Gina McCarthy: “That’s exactly what this is.”

Read more from this story HERE.

EPA Set To Strike Key Blow Against Coal?

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsStymied by the GOP’s long resistance to cap and trade legislation, the EPA this week began public hearings — the next step toward a final rule — to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new coal plants.

The rule would limit emissions to 1100 pounds per Megawatt hour, a level the coal industry says is technologically unattainable.

Green energy proponents disagree.

“Opponents say this will prevent ever building another coal-fired plant in the United States today. They say that the technology is not commercially available. These claims are scare tactics,” Rep. HenryWaxman, D-Calif., said in a press conference Thursday outside EPA headquarters in advance of the hearing.

Some supporters of the proposed rule say fracking has unleashed a treasure trove of cleaner natural gas. Its new abundance and low price has put coal at a competitive disadvantage, a welcome development, they say, given the consequences of global warming.

Read more from this story HERE.

Emails Show EPA Ignored Request for More Realistic Cost Ranges for Coal Regulations

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

Environmental Protection Agency officials ignored requests from the Office of Management and Budget to include a more realistic cost range for implementing stringent coal regulations for new coal plants, according to emails released by regulations.gov.

Prior to the EPA releasing its New Source Performance Standards, which would severely limit the building of new coal-fired power plants due to a requirement for those plants to include carbon capture and storage technology, the OMB raised multiple questions regarding the implementation of the regulations, including cost and feasibility of the technology.

“EPA’s assertion of the technical feasibility of carbon capture relies heavily on literature reviews, pilot projects, and commercial facilities yet to operate,” the OMB wrote. “We believe this cannot form the basis of a finding that CCS on commercial scale power plants is ‘adequately demonstrated’.”

The OMB also suggested the EPA include the full range of costs for implementing the technology instead of the low range, as the draft rule included.

“The commenter believes that it would be appropriate for the proposed rule to consider the full range of cost estimates developed by [the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory], recognizing the level of uncertainty in these estimates,” the OMB wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.