On Friday the legislator took the podium at the University of Pikeville before about 200 industry guests, coal mining families and community leaders for what he called “the coal country hearing EPA refused to have”, highlighting the importance of Kentucky’s present and its future.

“Since the EPA will not come to Pikeville to hear your message, I will deliver Pikeville’s message to them,” he told the crowd.

“Following the testimony… I plan on taking the experiences you share with me directly to the EPA, so it can hear from all of us how President Obama’s war on coal is negatively affecting our coal miners and economy in eastern Kentucky.”

The Obama administration held a total of 11 listening sessions during its tour but the closest one to Kentucky was in Atlanta, Georgia.

While another convened in Chicago, others were held in Lenexa, Kansas and in Boston, Massachusetts.

McConnell said he had asked the agency for a session in Kentucky, specifically in Pikeville, on numerous occasions but did not receive a response.

“It is obviously vital that we consider eastern Kentucky’s future … but it is equally important that we not give up on eastern Kentucky’s present,” he said.

“And coal is key to the present in eastern Kentucky.”

He noted that the coal industry paid more than $US1 billion in direct wages to Kentuckians every year, with many others indirectly benefiting from coal employment.

“That’s why, for many of us … ‘coal keeps the lights on’.”

Kentucky, one of the nation’s top five coal producing states, generates about 90% of its electricity with coal.