Lexington – The following statement may be attributed to Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, regarding actions taken this week by the President of the United States of America with regards to the Energy Independence Executive Order:

The Kentucky Coal Association is pleased to see President Trump’s Energy Independence Executive Order. This is another example of this administration’s commitment to the American people by taking steps to ensure American policies are not stifling growth and development by artificially limiting our ability to produce affordable and reliable energy.

Actions taken in this Executive Order are consistent with the President’s commitment to returning EPA to its core mission of protecting the environment. This will begin to return the EPA to its proper role under the Clean Air Act of actually regulating air emissions, instead of dictating to states how they should produce electricity. The Clean Air Act was not designed to allow EPA to determine how states should produce electricity. But the Clean Power Plan (CPP) gave EPA just such authority, in clear violation of the law.

The CPP was legally flawed from the beginning, and represented an unprecedented and unlawful power grab by the last Administration. We were confident the CPP ultimately would have been struck down as illegal by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court already recognized there were substantial legal questions raised by the rule and that it risked causing great harm to the economy, and the Court took the nearly unprecedented step of staying the rule.

Many states like Kentucky have wisely ignored the CPP while it has been stayed by the Supreme Court. It is our hope that with this new action from the administration, all states will put this behind them and focus instead on providing affordable and reliable electricity to grow their economies and give their citizens the best chance to achieve upward mobility. Here in Kentucky, we know that such affordable and reliable electricity that is fueling growth comes from coal.

For too long this country has been victim to policies that limit our growth by overregulation. Policies put into motion by the former Administration, like the Clean Power Plan, would have provided no meaningful impact on the planet’s climate but would have had a devastating impact on the U.S. economy. We appreciate that this administration is not picking winners and losers in the energy business and is allowing coal and other fuels to compete on a level playing field.

According to the National Mining Association, “EIA recently found that unplugging the CPP would preserve 240 million tons of annual coal production (EIA AEO 2017), saving 27,700 high wage mining jobs and an additional 99,849 jobs throughout the supply chain, according to NMA estimates.”

Lexington – The following statement may be attributed to Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, regarding actions taken this week by the United States House of Representatives and Senate with regards to the Stream Buffer Rule:

The Kentucky Coal Association thanks the country’s Majority Leader, Senator McConnell, Senator Paul, and leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to include Representatives, Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, and Rogers for their support of our vital industry.

This week, our country’s leaders took the first step in rolling back unlawful regulation by unaccountable federal bureaucrats. The Stream Protection Rule would have been a duplicative and overreaching rule altering over 400 regulations. Furthermore, it was forced out at the eleventh hour of the Obama Administration after eight years of secretive work by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), during which states were completely alienated from what is meant to be a cooperative process.

The Kentucky Coal Association will continue to advocate for a fair playing field that will allow coal to compete in the free market. The action by the Republican led House of Representatives yesterday and the Senate today is a step in the right direction and shows the people of Kentucky the commitment this new Congress, and administration has for the coal industry.

In a letter written to Senator McConnell, which was also referred to by the Leader on the floor of the senate the Kentucky Coal Association: “The undeniable truth is that the SPR will have a real impact on the real world. It will cause real harm to real people, who support real families in real communities. And those real families and communities desperately need Congress to intervene on their behalf to rebuke the actions of an out-of-control federal agency by passing a resolution to overturn the SPR and send it to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.”

This week Congress intervened on behalf of the real families and communities who have real impact on the real world. Most importantly, it is noteworthy that this was the first regulation Congress decided to tackle showing their dedication to coal country and to protecting and creating American jobs.

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Lexington – The following statement may be attributed to Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, regarding the confirmation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt:

The Kentucky Coal Association congratulates former Oklahoma Attorney General, and Kentucky native, Scott Pruitt for his confirmation as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We have the utmost confidence in Administrator Pruitt’s ability’s to effectively manage and guide the EPA within the construct and parameters of the law.

Kentucky has long been the victim of federal overreach and relentless assaults from the EPA throughout the Obama administration. More specifically the coal industry was often the target of this regulatory overreach. We are confident Administrator Pruitt will bring a commonsense and lawful approach to environmental protection.

Administrator Pruitt’s understanding of the rights and roles of states agencies with regard to implementing environmental laws will greatly complement the leadership we have in Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet.

The Kentucky Coal Association would also like to thank Leader McConnell for his support of Administrator Pruitt from the time he was nominated as well as Senator Rand Paul.

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