Capito Highlights Local Impact of Anti-Coal Regulations

Via The Williamson Daily News:

LOGAN, W.Va. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee’s Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, chaired a field hearing in Southern West Virginia focused on the local impacts of EPA’s climate regulations. Senator Capito released this statement following the hearing at the Chief Logan Conference Center in Logan:

“The litany of anti-coal regulations put forward by this administration doesn’t just impact coal companies. It impacts every vendor in the supply chain, every coal miner and their family, and every community where fewer incomes mean fewer sales and less revenue,” said Senator Capito.

“Coal jobs are good jobs, but these jobs have been under attack, and bankruptcies in the coal industry have jeopardized promised heath care benefits to retired miners. Today’s hearing provided a platform for those most directly affected by the administration’s harmful regulations to have their voices heard. The EPA never came to West Virginia when it crafted these regulations. Today’s hearing accomplishes what the EPA was never willing to.”

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and U.S. Representative Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) participated in the hearing, along with West Virginians who have directly felt the impacts of EPA’s regulations. Witnesses included Eugene M. Trisko, Counsel to United Mine Workers of America; coal miner Jimmy Dale “Bo” Copley II; Wayne County Commission President Robert E. Pasley; Karan Ireland, West Virginia Solar United Neighborhoods Program Director; and West Virginia University law professor James M. Van Nostrand.

See the article here.