“These cap-and-tax regulations will destroy millions of jobs, cripple the American economy and cause massive blackouts in our country,” the company said in a press release. The company filed a similar lawsuit during March based on the EPA’s rules for future plants.
In its lawsuit, Murray Energy is asking the court to issue a writ preventing the EPA from promulgating and implementing this rule on electric power generation. “This is clearly an illegal attempt by the Obama EPA to impose irrational and destructive cap-and-tax mandates, which Congress and the American people have consistently rejected,” said Gary M. Broadbent, assistant general counsel and media director for Murray Energy. “These proposed rules will cause immediate and irreparable harm to Americans, including our citizens on fixed incomes and our manufacturers of products that compete in the global marketplace.”
In the company’s opinion — one which is also shared by many others in the coal business — the EPA has waged an all-out “war on coal,” promulgating a series of rules and regulations seeking to eliminate the U.S. coal industry, and the very good jobs, and low-cost electricity that it provides. To date, at least 421 coal-fired electric power plants in America have been closed, identified for closure, or switched to a different fuel source because of the EPA, the company said.
