Among those who have spoken out against the plan are Peabody Energy government relations senior vice-president Fredrick Palmer, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and the Physicians for Civil Defence.

Many have mounted compelling economic and social arguments, citing the economic benefits of retaining coal-fired power and the number of jobs that will be lost if coal mining is stopped.

Perhaps the most colourful argument in the debate so far has come from Alabama Public Service Commission commissioner-elect Chip Beeker who reportedly said coal was created in Alabama by God and the federal government should not enact policy that ran counter to God’s plan.

“Who has the right to take what God’s given a state?” news site Alabama.com quotes him as asking.

Meanwhile, Palmer called for the rule to be withdrawn and for the greater deployment of technology as the long-term solution to improve emissions.

“Using coal for electricity enables people to live longer and better lives and drives the lowest US electricity costs for any major fuel,” he said.

“This proposal would endanger human health and welfare by making electricity – one of life’s necessities – scarce and expensive.

“The real endangerment finding is the harm the administration’s rule will have on Americans – particularly the poor, the working class, the elderly, minorities, small businesses, manufacturing, those grappling with health care or healthy food costs and a fledgling economy that should be growing jobs at far faster rates.”

One of the issues outlined in the Peabody testimony was that the EPA lauded California as an energy model yet the western state had exacerbated energy inequality and turned away business based on high renewable mandates and energy taxes.

Power prices in California are 40% higher than the US average, businesses are exiting at a 3:1 ratio and 700,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost there since 2000.

Governors Tomblin and Corbett addressed a rally of working families in Pennsylvania’s energy sector.

“In Pennsylvania nearly 63,000 men and women work in jobs supported by the coal industry,” Corbett said.

“Anything that seeks to, or has the effect of shutting down coal-fired power plants, is an assault on Pennsylvania jobs, consumers and those citizens who rely on affordable, abundant domestic energy.”

Pennsylvania’s coal industry has direct, indirect and induced benefits to the state’s economy of about $4.1 billion.

Of the more than 63,000 energy sector workers, about 8100 of them are coal miners.

Tomblin also railed against the EPA’s requirements.

“Since the proposed rules were introduced in June we have been told states will have flexibility to meet the new standards outlined in the plan but in one instance the EPA’s renewable energy goal for West Virginia – an increase of 600% – is simply unattainable,” he said.

Physicians for Civil Defence president Dr Jane Orient called the EPA’s claims of health benefits from its rules “bogus”

“It uses secret calculations based on secret data,” she said.

“Its assertion that a tiny amount of dust in outdoor air causes asthma attacks or sudden death doesn’t even make sense.”