West Virginia Coal Association

West Virginia Coal Association president Bill Raney, a longtime supporter of the coal community as a third-generation mining professional, said the regulations would pull the jobs rug out from under his state’s miners.

“EPA's planned announcement this week of new source performance standards for new coal-fired power plants will hurt West Virginia jobs, our economy and may result in increased electric costs for consumers across this country,” he said.

“These new rules are expected to stymie the construction of new, and the expansion of existing, coal-fired generating plants – the most dependable, reliable and lowest cost method of making electricity in America today.

“If you can't build new coal-fired power plants or expand the ones we have, EPA's directly taking West Virginia coal jobs.”

To make matters worse, Raney said, the US government refused to determine the economic impact the rules would have before they were made official.

The negative attack was also magnified by efforts to reduce fossil fuel and carbon control and sequestration budgets in the US Department of Energy, which he said should be maintained and increased.

“When you look at these rules as a package and their arrogant behaviour, there is no other conclusion to be drawn than this EPA and Administration is making good on its promise to put the industry out of business and take our peoples' livelihoods … [and] millions of American jobs, as well as the economies of communities across this country, hang in the balance,” Raney said.

“The West Virginia Coal Association is calling upon all congressional leaders who recognise that coal is a critical piece of this country's energy plan and the provider of low cost, affordable electricity to put the brakes on this out-of-control EPA before the economic damage becomes irreversible. There is much more to be said on this issue, but Congress needs to act now."

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin

Democratic senator Joe Manchin, a former state governor with long and binding ties to the coal industry, said the standards were evidence the Obama Administration wanted to hold the coal industry to impossible standards.

“Never before has the federal government forced an industry to do something that is technologically impossible,” he said.

“Forcing coal to meet the same emissions standards as gas when experts know the required technology is not operational on a commercial scale makes absolutely no sense and will have devastating impacts to the coal industry and our economy.”

Manchin noted that the US was long overdue for the establishment of an all-of-the-above energy policy that truly incorporated everything, using every domestic resource available – including coal.

“The facts are plain and simple: coal provides the greatest share of electricity we use, generating around 40% of our power,” he said.

“The President's own Department of Energy predicts that coal will continue to be a major source of electricity for at least the next 30 years. It's just common sense to level the playing field and accept that coal is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a significant part of our energy mix.”

Manchin warned that, should the outlines become final, it will mean the loss of American jobs and growing economic uncertainty.

“We need the federal government to work as a partner, not an adversary, and to invest in America's energy future,” he said.

“I will continue to fight EPA overreach, just as I did as governor, to protect the reliable, affordable energy and the good-paying jobs that coal-fired power plants provide in West Virginia and across this country.”

Kentucky Coal Association

Kentucky Coal Association president Bill Bissett said the rules equated to a threat against his state’s ability to maintain and create jobs.

“Coal is a critical part of our state's economy in both production and the generation of more than 90% of our electricity,” he said.

“For several years, the Obama Administration has pursued policies that have contributed to the loss of thousands of direct coal-mining jobs in eastern Kentucky.

“Now in its second term, this administration has targeted the use of coal, which greatly damages our domestic market for Kentucky coal.

“It demonstrates once again that Washington regulators don't appreciate the importance of coal to Kentucky and the United States."

Consol Energy

Consol Energy officials said the EPA’s moves were “dangerous” and “unnecessary”

“The President is legislating through regulatory bodies on an issue where Congress and the American people have repeatedly rejected his chosen path,” the company said.

“Poll after poll shows that the public prioritises jobs, the economy and skyrocketing debt as the defining issues of our time, yet the administration continues to move in a direction that will have no measurable impact on the stated goal of reductions in global CO2 concentrations and will only exacerbate the issues where Americans are demanding leadership by threatening to put our most abundant and affordable domestic resource on the sidelines.”

Murray Energy

Never one to mince words, Murray Energy founder and president Robert Murray was quick to react to the administration’s proposal, pointing out that it guaranteed skyrocketing electricity rates nationwide.

“This is an absolute tragedy, with no environmental benefit whatsoever," he said, noting that some of the nearly 1500 employed at his Ohio operations alone could see their jobs disappear.

“Obama is destroying the US coal industry,” Murray said.

Wyoming governor Matt Mead

Top coal producing state Wyoming, which could feel the impact of the EPA’s rules even more significantly that other western states, will suffer damage should the regulations be finalised, according to governor and longtime coal advocate Matt Mead.

“Like the last iteration, this latest EPA proposal would be damaging to Wyoming, the nation’s top coal supplier,” he said.

“The standards for coal-fired power generation in the proposed rule are unachievable and will arrest research, development and commercialisation of clean technologies.

“This poses grave implications for the continuing viability of coal as an energy source and for the economic stability of Wyoming and the nation.”

Mead also noted that as much as 40% of America’s electricity came from coal, which was both abundant and affordable – and that the industry had been working hard to reduce emissions from coal generation.

“Year after year there have been reductions of every form of emission,” Mead said, adding that recently built coal plants used the best available technologies.

“We can do more, but the heavy burden of this proposed rule on new plants and the EPA’s planned further regulation of existing sources will have far-reaching consequences. Citizens who need low cost electricity, individuals who need jobs, our country which needs energy security, our coal industry which needs to be able to operate successfully, our schools and our communities which depend on a viable coal industry – all will be impacted by EPA’s proposed rule.”

Peabody Energy

International producer Peabody Energy said the technology the EPA wanted to see used to meet its goals was just not ready for widespread use.

“Carbon capture and storage technology is simply not commercially available and not able to satisfy America's need for low-cost electricity,” the producer said.

In contrast, it added, advanced supercritical generation was the best technology available today, and officials said that was the standard that the EPA needed to follow.

“This type of experiment has been tried – and failed – in Australia, the European Union and California, and it has led to soaring power prices, exported jobs and slumping economies,” Peabody said in reaction.

“Peabody believes the EPA's plan is outside the realm of the law, fails to protect the American consumer, and will hurt electric reliability and America's ability to compete.”

Pennsylvania Coal Alliance

PA Coal Alliance CEO John Pippy raised an important point: banning new and efficient plants that could reduce emissions and forcing a reliable and affordable domestic fuel source out of the mix would result in little or no environmental improvement.

“Pennsylvania’s economy will be disproportionately affected through the loss of thousands of middle-class jobs, and manufacturers, commercial businesses and individual consumers will all pay more for electricity,” he said.

“We do not need to choose between a cleaner environment and reliable, affordable electricity and the jobs that go along with it. We can have all of those things with a collaborative approach that relies on science and technology rather than on what is perceived as politically fashionable.”

Arch Coal

Arch Coal officials also say the technology needed to drive the EPA’s vision of the future was not yet ready.

In the meantime, however, the industry has already been making big strides.

”The coal-based generation industry has made tremendous progress in reducing emissions in recent years – with non-greenhouse-gas emissions per unit of coal consumed down 90% since 1970," Arch Coal senior vice president of strategy and public policy Deck Slone said.

“The newest coal plants far exceed even those reductions, and also have lower greenhouse gas emissions due to their higher efficiency levels.

“We believe that coal plants with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions will be achievable in time, but such technology is simply not available today.

Arch’s position, Slone said, was that the Obama Administration had gone “way too far, way too fast” in its push, a move that might actually arrest technological advances rather than spur them forward.

“With the world's fastest growing economies continuing to build their economies on coal, it makes no sense for the United States – which possesses the world's largest coal reserves – to erect barrier after barrier to coal use,” he said.

“In doing so, we are ensuring America higher power prices, lower economic growth and reduced international competitiveness – and effectively foreclosing on our ability to use this affordable, secure and reliable fuel in the future."

United Mine Workers of America

United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts said that, plain and simple, coal had to maintain a part of the energy future.

“Under this proposed set of regulations, there will be no more coal-fired power plants built in the United States … [t]hat’s just a fact,” he said.

“People can say all they want about the possibility of using carbon capture and storage CCS technology on new plants, but the reality is that absent significant support from the government, no utility will make the commitment to spend billions to add unproven CCS capability to their new power plant.”

Roberts said the EPA outlines did succeed in one thing: laying the groundwork for significantly higher electricity bills across the US, and particularly for those in coal-rich states such as West Virginia, Kentucky Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and others.

He said there was “no issue of greater importance” for its members than what was in front of them with the EPA’s proposal.

“This is about whether or not our members have a future working in an industry that provides steady employment,” Roberts said.

“It is about whether or not our members can continue to earn good wages, provide for their families and be the main economic drivers of the communities where they live.”

It was also, Roberts added, about whether the more than 100,000 UMWA retirees, their dependents and widows who received health care and pension benefits would find those benefits at risk.

“As we ask, ‘What is the future of electricity generation in America?’ we must also ask, ‘What kind of future do we want for America?’,” he said.

“If the answer to that question is one that addresses long-term economic and energy security, then coal must be part of that future.

“If the answer to that question is one that promotes continued high-paying jobs in rural America, then coal must be part of that future.

“And if the answer to that question is one that addresses environmental challenges and leaves the world a better place for our children and grandchildren, then we believe coal is part of that future as well.

“We will make that case to EPA in our comments on this proposed regulation. I can only hope that they listen.”