U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said on Wednesday that anti-coal regulations handed down by the EPA have negatively impacted the coal industry, supply chain vendors and coal miners in West Virginia.
Capito delivered the remarks during a field hearing that she convened in Logan, West Virginia, to highlight the local impact of climate change regulations.
“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,” Capito, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, said. “(Wednesday’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.”
Last February, Capito questioned EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Janet McCabe about why listening sessions weren’t held in West Virginia while the Clean Power Plan was being drafted.
“I was shocked when she responded that it was because EPA ‘wanted to have those [discussions] in locations where people were comfortable,’” Capito said. “So the ‘comfort’ of EPA bureaucrats was more important to this administration than coming here to Logan — or to Mingo or McDowell or Boone counties — to talk to people like our witnesses (on Wednesday), and people like all of you in the audience, the people who will bear the brunt of these regulations, and whose lives and livelihoods are directly impacted.”
Capito assured people in attendance at the field hearing that she and other representatives were there for them, adding, “There is no place where we would be more comfortable.”