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EPA Gathers Coal Country Comments about Climate Plan Repeal

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The coal industry and environmentalists are squaring off at a two-day public hearing over the Trump administration’s planned repeal of an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding the only scheduled hearing on the reversal in Charleston, West Virginia. The state is heavily dependent on coal mining.

The Clean Power Plan sought to ratchet down use of the dirtiest fossil fuel. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of the carbon emissions driving climate change.

Among those testifying Tuesday was Bob Murray, chief executive Murray Energy Corp. He derided the Obama plan as an illegal power grab that devastated his industry, costing coal miners their livelihoods.

Sierra Club’s climate-policy director Liz Perera countered that the proposed repeal ignores scientific reality.