Rep. Rahall on EPA coal tour: ‘Good grief, they are going to San Francisco’

Coal country lawmakers from both parties said Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is turning a blind eye to their states as it crafts carbon emissions limits for power plants.

They used a pro-coal rally in front of the Capitol to bash EPA’s “listening session” tour on the planned rules, which began this month but doesn’t include stops in West Virginia, Kentucky and several other coal states.

“As we stand here today, they are believe it or not in the middle of conjuring up more coal-killing regulations. But they won’t even come to coal country to hold their hearings. They won’t come down to where we mine the coal and burn the coal and speak to us directly and give us a fair fight,” Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) said at the coal-industry sponsored rally attended by miners and other coal supporters.

“They are going to Atlanta, they are going to Boston and good grief, they are going to San Francisco, you name every big city, they are going there,” Rahall said, listing cities where the EPA is holding the sessions as it crafts standards that will apply to currently operating power plants.

“You want to have a fight about beans, you go to Boston, you want to have a fight about sourdough, you go to San Francisco, and if you want to have a fight about coal? Where do you come to? You come over to coal country!,” he said to applause.

Lawmakers who appeared at the rally, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and others, argued the EPA rules will cause major losses of coal industry jobs and hurt the economy.

The rally is organized by the National Mining Association-led “Count on Coal” coalition.