Coal CEO: ‘Obama is destroying the U.S. coal industry

The Martins Ferry (WV) Times Leader opines:
IF PRESIDENT Obama’s plan is to demoralize this nation’s coal industry, he took another big step forward Friday.
It came in the form of stringent requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants.
The proposal establishes the first national limits on heat-trapping pollution from future power plants. It is intended to help reshape where Americans get electricity, moving from a coal-dependent past into a future fired by cleaner sources of energy.
The new standards drew protests from the coal industry and Republicans, noting it would be very detrimental to the future of coal.
What will the new regulations mean?
Another blow to an already burdened coal industry as well as a spike in electricity rates.
The proposal is integral in?President Obama’s agenda to curb theoretical global warming. It would do so by curtailing what Obama terms “the limitless dumping of carbon pollution” from all power plants.
The EPA issued a statement saying it didn’t expect the proposal would impact electric rates, the labor market or the U.S. economy.
Once again, the EPA is offbase in its dealing with the coal industry.
West?Virginia?Sen. Joe Manchin is correct when he says the EPA is holding the coal industry to “impossible standards.”
He added that when the regulations go into place electric prices will soar and jobs will be lost. We believe that view is accurate and painful.
The EPA even had the audacity to say the new rules would help the coal industry to adapt by encouraging energy companies to develop ways to reduce carbon dioxide. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rather, the proposal is another piece in Obama’s grand scheme to eliminate coal.
It is our belief these new regulations are unfair, unnecessary and devastating.
Murray Energy Corp. CEO summed it up best, “Obama is destroying the U.S. coal industry.”

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