Bianca Sanchez, bianca.sanchez@sierraclub.org
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - On the heels of receiving an inaugural “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from an industry-backed pro-coal group, President Trump has announced $175 million in taxpayer-funded handouts to seven coal plants, including Appalachian Power’s Amos and Mountaineer plants and Monongahela Power’s Fort Martin. The money, originally intended to support energy resiliency, efficiency, and greenhouse gas reductions in rural communities, will now instead subsidize new, expensive equipment for the aging plants, locking West Virginians into years of expensive, health-harming power.
In addition to the handouts to corporate polluters who poison local water and air, the Trump administration has announced plans to institute a string of environmental roll-backs amounting to a brazen assault on the health and welfare of the American public. The Trump administration announced it will finalize its rule revoking the Environmental Protection Agency’s longstanding greenhouse gas endangerment finding under the federal Clean Air Act and rollback several other rules that keep Americans safe and healthy, including MATS standards, clean vehicle standards, and monument protections.
As a result of the repeals and handouts, coal plants will be able to emit more dangerous mercury and particulate matter with fewer pollution controls, increasing exposure risk for communities to harmful pollutants that can cause developmental delays, heart attacks, and premature death. West Virginians will pay the price as executives line their pockets.
“This week’s announcements add to this administration’s mounting legacy as the gravest threat yet to American health, clean air, clean water, and affordable living,” said Lisa Di Bartolomeo, West Virginia’s Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer. “Local families bear the brunt of health-harming air pollution, mounting hospital bills, missed work days, and unmanageable power bills. Coal is not a forward-looking energy solution. It keeps bills high and communities sick. To guarantee West Virginia’s place as an energy power house for future generations, our state must bring online more renewable energy that is cleaner, cheaper, and faster.”
“Water is vital to life. In West Virginia, we already have too many communities where lack of safe water is a major problem,” added Bill Price, Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter Chair. “State and Federal officials need to provide better protection, and the repeal of the endangerment rule puts people in those communities at even greater risk.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.