CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Coal Forum applauds U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan.

“We have been eagerly awaiting this news ever since President Trump promised us a few months ago that he would continue to change Washington’s attitudes toward the coal industry,” said Coal Forum Co-chairman Chris Hamilton.

The West Virginia Coal Forum is an organization representing business and labor in the coal industry.

In Pruitt’s official filing to repeal the Clean Power Plan, he states EPA lacks the statutory authority for such an over-reaching regulation that is fraught with economic pitfalls and practical impossibilities. In an analysis by the National Review, the editorial board correctly summarizes the Clean Power Plan: “The combination of severe limitations on carbon dioxide emissions and incentives for adopting alternative-energy schemes was intended to achieve exactly what Barack Obama had previously promised to do: ruin the coal industry.”

Hamilton agreed with that analysis.

“We have been saying for years that the Clean Power Plan was nothing more than an orchestrated campaign to destroy coal mining in the United States, particularly in Appalachia,” Hamilton said. “Repealing the CPP is the right thing to do. EPA’s actions today are further proof that we now have an administration that understands the massive role coal plays in the American economy and electric grid and that the agency also finally understands the limits on the power granted to it by Congress.”

For additional information, contact the West Virginia Coal Forum at (304) 957-2306.