In a rambling speech Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice painted a near-apocalyptic picture of West Virginia’s future if the policy holds doubled on his promise to fight new federal regulations that would limit pollution and emissions from coal-fired power plants across the country.
The new rules, released Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency, require coal-fired power plants to reduce or capture 90% of their greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. Last week, the state’s entire congressional delegation, along with other Republican state leaders, pushed back against the new rule and vowed that it would not go into effect without a fight.
During his virtual press conference on Tuesday, Justice spent several minutes lamenting the new rules. He said stricter emissions regulations would handcuff coal producers in the state and across the country, causing America to be “weakened” and in turn triggering “blackouts” and “wars that will break out all over the world.”
“This is really bad stuff,” Justice said. “It makes no sense at all for America to blow our own legs out from under us and then sit around and get weakened.”
Under the new rule, coal-fired power plants that remain busy beyond 2039 would have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 90% by 2032. Other power plants that are expected to be shut down by that time would still have to reduce their emissions, although not as drastically.
In addition to limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released by the nation’s power plants, the regulations also establish new wastewater disposal standards for coal-fired power plants, update limits on emissions of mercury and other air pollutants, and establish cleanup requirements for coal ash landfills across the country.
Justice, whose family business portfolio includes several coal mines and who made much of his money from coal mining operations, is currently running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-Wa., who has decided not to seek re-election.
Manchin last week too criticized the rules and said he believed the changes were a political tactic and that there would be political consequences for President Joe Biden and other politicians who supported them in November.
“The [Biden] “The administration is more afraid of the political threats from climate activists than the warnings from our nation’s electricity reliability regulators and grid operators that these rules will further strain our already vulnerable electric grid,” said Manchin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “It is unfortunate, although no longer unexpected, that in an election year they are trying to score short-term political points rather than prioritizing long-term reliability.”
Manchin was joined by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., who called the rules “disgusting”; Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who said they were part of an “unrealistic climate agenda” that would “cripple the backbone of America’s electric grid,” and Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., who called them “unrealistic Climate Agenda” called “outrageous” insults to coal communities by “Biden’s out-of-control EPA.”
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican running for the Judiciary governorship in a close primary, vowed to challenge the rules in court, calling them “unacceptable.”
“We are confident that this new rule will not be upheld, and it appears designed only to retire more coal-fired power plants — the goal of the Biden administration,” Morrisey said in a statement.
West Virginia is currently home to nine coal-fired power plants. According to the US Energy Information AdministrationIn 2022, the state was the second largest coal producer in the country, accounting for 14% of total U.S. coal production. About 89% of West Virginia’s energy comes from coal-fired power plants. Renewable energy such as wind and hydropower are on the rise, accounting for about 7% of the state’s energy production in 2022, while natural gas provided about 4%.
In EPA’s release of the rules, the agency said it hoped to provide greater “regulatory certainty” as incentives for transitioning to cleaner energy augment at both the local and national levels.
Environmentalists are too advertise the stricter guidelines in the hope that over time they will support tidy up historically polluted areas where health problems persist due to toxins and residents are forced to live without guaranteed access to tidy water or air.
Quenton King, vice president of the West Virginia Environmental Council, said in a statement that the rules will provide “tremendous public health benefits and a serious step toward addressing climate change” both in the state and beyond.
“Many people in West Virginia live in the shadow of dirty coal-fired power plants, struggle with poor air quality and worry that their water could be contaminated by mercury and other toxic metals from smokestacks,” King said. “Our policymakers must take the implications of this rule seriously, consider the available federal incentives for clean, renewable energy, and recognize that a cleaner economy can be a win for all of our communities, workers, the environment and ratepayers.”
