Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway and his West Virginia counterpart Patrick Morrisey have agreed to join a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its authority to regulate carbon emissions.
Both men feel the EPA lacks that power and explained why during a press conference in Ashland (KY) on Wednesday (September 3).
Morrisey says the regulations proposed by the agency in June are hurting the much-beleaguered coal industry already.
“There is a real and present danger associated with these regulations now. There is a chilling effect to states, to coal operators, to power plants, to coal miners.” –Patrick Morrisey
“A few years ago we had over a fourteen thousand people employed in the coal industry. At the end of last year, that number was about seventy-three hundred. And let me be clear, we’re talking about areas of my beloved Commonwealth of Kentucky that are seeing twenty percent unemployment.” –Jack Conway
The Attorneys General say their states can’t wait two or three years for a decision on the regulations. They say their coal industries could be history by then.
