Murray Energy Corporation, one of the largest employers in the U.S. coal industry, filed a lawsuit this week in the United States Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit against the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency. The lawsuit is intended to challenge the EPA’s devastating cap-and-tax regulations on existing coal-burning power plants that will destroy millions of jobs, cripple the American economy, and eliminate low-cost electricity.

“This is clearly an illegal attempt by the Obama EPA to impose irrational and destructive cap-and-tax mandates, which Congress and the American people have consistently rejected,” said Gary M. Broadbent, Assistant General Counsel and Media Director for Murray Energy. “These proposed rules will cause immediate and irreparable harm to Americans, including our citizens on fixed incomes and our manufacturers of products that compete in the global marketplace.”

The Obama EPA is waging an all-out war on coal, establishing a series of rules and regulations endeavoring to eliminate the American coal industry, good jobs, and the reliable, low cost electricity that it provides. At least 421 coal-fired electric power plants in the U.S. have been closed, identified for closure, or switched to a different fuel source thus far. Since the Obama Administration and its EPA took over, Kentucky has lost more than 7,000 coalmining jobs, a huge blow to our state’s economy and our citizens.

The Bluegrass Institute noted this February that even Kentucky Democrats recognize that if the EPA implements the same oppressive emission standards on existing coal-fired power plants, our state’s economy will suffer greatly.

Kentucky politicians could push back against the EPA by passing legislation like the Bluegrass Institute’s model bill, the Intrastate Coal and Use Act. The bill incorporates the Constitution’s Ninth and Tenth amendments into its language in order to prohibit the ability of the EPA to enforce environmental regulations on the 25 percent of Kentucky-produced coal that never leaves the commonwealth.

Elaina Waters, BIPPS intern