The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" Combined with other EPA policies and regulations, Betsy Monseu, CEO of the American Coal Council said, "Starting in about 2012 and continuing to 2020, we'll have about 60 gigawatts of coal-fired generation coming off-line...and the majority of that will come off in regard to the implementation of MATS in 2015 and 2016."
"We need all energy," countered Mead, "whether it's renewable, whether it's coal, oil, or gas, and we all have a responsibility to do it in the best way possible."
"One of the keys to America's success is to have an energy strategy that does in fact have 'all of the above' and recognizes no energy source is perfect,” Mead said. “All of them need improvement. Let's focus our efforts on improving rather than by regulation taking energy sources off the table."
Recent federal court rulings have sided with the EPA. On April 15, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the EPA's MATS rule. Two weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld another EPA rule that places limits on the amount of smog from coal plants that can cross state lines.