WASHINGTON (WV News) — West Virginia officials are pushing back on comments made by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry about coal-fired power plants.
Kerry, during the 2023 United Climate Change Conference in Dubai, said there “shouldn’t be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Kerry’s comments represent “empty promises and unachievable goals.”
“John Kerry says, ‘No coal plants shall be permitted anywhere in the world.’ He’s in Dubai telling everybody that he, himself, and this administration will shut down and no longer permit — which there’s no coal-fired power plants being built anyway — but won’t be permitted, but they will be shut down by 2030,” Capito said during a Senate GOP leadership press conference. “There’s no plan to replace. These are empty promises that he’s taking to the world community in the name of being the ‘climate czar’ for our great country.”
Capito has been a vocal opponent of a set of proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules she says would force the closure of West Virginia’s coal-fired power plants.
The EPA’s proposal is titled “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.” The proposal was released at the end of May.
The proposed rules would require coal- and natural-gas-fired electric generation facilities to capture or dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the years ahead.
The rules would impact gas-fired combustion turbines, coal-, oil- and gas-fired steam-generating units and certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines.
The EPA has said the proposed standards would result in reduced pollution and improved health outcomes.
“By proposing new standards for fossil-fuel-fired power plants, EPA is delivering on its mission to reduce harmful pollution that threatens people’s health and well-being,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.
Gov. Jim Justice highlighted Kerry’s comments during his press briefing Tuesday, saying Kerry and other officials in the Biden administration have pledged to “kill coal.”
“In my opinion, it’s the dumbest thing on the planet,” Justice said. “But it all originated with Barack Obama, and Barack Obama has been poison in our lives, in my opinion, from Day One.”
On the day the EPA’s proposed rules were announced, Justice said he planned to “urge” state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to lead a legal challenge against them.
“Without any question, I will absolutely urge our attorney general — Patrick will do a good job with regard to this,” Justice said. “I will urge anybody and everybody to challenge through our court system or whatever it may be to absolutely see that this doesn’t come to pass.”
In 2021, coal-fired power plants accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s total electricity net generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Renewable energy resources, primarily hydroelectric power and wind energy, contributed 5%, and natural gas provided more than 4%.