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A leading domestic energy advocacy group praised EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s announcement that his agency would undo recent additions to the federal “mercury and air-toxics standards” (MATS) for coal-fired power plants.
Zeldin said removing the restrictions allows the already “robust” MATS standards to remain in effect, ensuring both public health and the health of America’s coal industry amid a push for U.S. energy dominance.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s anti-coal regulations sought to regulate out of existence this vital sector of our energy economy. If implemented, these actions would have destroyed reliable American energy,” Zeldin said at the Mills Creek Power Plant in Kentucky, adding that protecting the environment and supporting industry and baseload power is not a “binary choice.”
In response, Power the Future founder Daniel Turner told Fox News Digital the move is a significant step toward revitalizing the American coal industry and, in turn, fueling economies in economically depressed industrial communities throughout Appalachia and beyond.
“Since the war on coal, we have weakened our grid, driven electricity prices through the roof, outsourced major industries to Mexico and China, but most of all driven tens of thousands of Americans into ruin because of a globalist agenda,” Turner said Friday, adding that the costs of a crippled coal industry went far beyond shuttered infrastructure:
“The cruel Obama-led war on coal ruined numerous towns across rural America, drove families into poverty, caused alcoholism, opioid addiction, domestic violence, and suicide to skyrocket.”
“Power The Future started because of coal miners, the acceptable casualties in the globalist climate change agenda,” said Turner, whose group is based in coal-heavy Virginia.
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“Restoring America’s coal dominance is good for our national security and economy, and it restores the dignity of small-town coal workers whose labor is vital to America’s survival.”
Many of America’s poorest counties are in what were once very wealthy coal communities — including McDowell and Mingo counties in West Virginia and Bell, Letcher, McCreary, and Breathitt counties in Kentucky, where Vice President JD Vance’s family is from.
During much of the 20th century, McDowell County — and its seat, Welch — was the No. 1 coal-producing county in the U.S. and home to 100,000 people — a population boom some credit with spurring construction of what became the nation’s first parking deck, which is still standing today in Welch.
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Now, about one-quarter of McDowell residents live in poverty while the median income is around $30,000.
Turner alluded to those conditions in comments to Fox News Digital, saying people must “never forget or forgive the drivers of the war on coal for their cruel attacks on a vital industry found only in rural America.”
“[Anti-coal politicians] fly private jets to attend global climate summits while they orchestrated an evil attack on the coal miner making America weaker and China richer.”
Turner quipped that any “anti-coal activist” is invited to join him in visiting coal-producing communities but may be unhappy to get dirt on their clothing and find lodging not up to “Four Seasons” standards.
“We need coal. There is not one product around you right now that was not touched by coal, and to lower prices, bring market stability and ensure economic growth, we need to dominate the coal industry,” Turner said.
The Mill Creek power plant in Kentucky, where Lee Zeldin made his announcement, is seen. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
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“Sadly, the liberal elite who launched the war on coal are too ignorant or too indifferent to know this. The ignorant can be educated, and that’s what I try to do at Power The Future. But the indifferent must be defeated, as they are a threat to our liberty, property and prosperity. I will never stop until I defeat them all,” he said, calling President Donald Trump the “greatest coal president in history.”
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy fired back at the policy change, telling the AP that “by weakening pollution limits and monitoring for brain-damaging mercury and other pollutants, they are actively undermining any attempt to make America — and our children — healthy.”
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