Kentucky legislators grill EPA on coal

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This week saw state legislators continue the battle to defend Kentucky coal from the unilateral edicts of the Environmental Protection Agency. Congressman Hal Rogers (R) of Kentucky’s fifth district traveled to Capitol Hill this past Thursday to demand an explanation for why EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has targeted Appalachian coal mining in particular:

“It's not just Kentucky, it's all of Appalachia. It's not Colorado, it's not Wyoming, it's not western coal. It's just Appalachian coal.”

When Administrator Jackson, shown to the right, admitted to not being able to provide the number of new coal mining permits recently issued for eastern Kentucky,  Congressman Rogers fired back, “I know you can't because there has not been any.”

The EPA’s refusal to allow new permits stunts the kind of job creation desperately needed in Kentucky and threatens the 18,000 coal mining jobs that exist presently. As Congressman Rogers put it, “I have so many people looking for work, out of work, and I can't understand how you would sit there and not know details of this magnitude to a whole section of the country.”