West Virginia Metro News – Comments are now being accepted on the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed emissions limits for new coal-fired power plants which are designed to reduce carbon pollution. Read
Jeri Matheney, Communications Director for Appalachian Power, said the proposal will make building a new coal-fired plant difficult. “It really effectively eliminates coal as an option for a new power plant because the emission limit is so much lower than any existing coal-fueled generating technologies can achieve,” she said.
Critics have claimed the federal government has unfairly targeted coal with the regulations.
But Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said the coal industry’s problems in the Mountain State started before the EPA’s new limits.
“If the EPA just dismantled and shut down today, we’re still going to have a declining structure for coal in West Virginia,” said Boettner. “That’s part of the problem is we’re not acknowledging that this is happening right now.”
