WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rich Nolan, President and CEO of the National Mining Association (NMA) issued the following comment following the news that the Environmental Protection Agency would be exempting gas-fired plants from a new regulation that would require power plants in the United States to capture their carbon dioxide emissions:
“The fact that the administration is bowing to pressure from the oil and gas industry does nothing for Americans who want an all of the above energy strategy that includes coal to safeguard the reliability and affordability of our electricity grid. Look no further than the 2021 winter grid catastrophe in Texas – or the wild price spikes that followed the markets during the energy crisis – for what can happen when we are over reliant on any single energy source. This is just one more example of the EPA making the wrong decisions that will continue to increase electricity bills, especially in the states that rely on coal as their leading fuel for electricity generation.”
National polling conducted for the NMA Feb. 26-28, 2024, of 1,502 Americans, found that 78 percent of Americans support an all of the above energy strategy that includes coal, 72 percent of Americans are concerned about the speed of the transition’s impacts on reliability and 65 percent believe we should pause closures of existing, well-operating power plants until replacement generating capacity is in place and operational.
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