The United Mine Workers of America president used strong language yesterday to slam U.S. EPA's proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

"The Navy SEALs shot Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and [EPA Administrator] Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington," UMWA President Cecil Roberts said in an interview on West Virginia MetroNews talk radio.

"I do think the EPA has overstepped its boundaries here, and I have communicated that and the union has communicated that to the administration," he added, stressing the need for global cooperation and congressional action on greenhouse gases as opposed to EPA action.

Critics say the rules would prevent new coal-fired power plants from being built, undermining domestic demand for coal (Greenwire, March 28). Roberts said he worried about the loss of mining jobs and health care and pension benefits.

"Where does the funding come from for all that? It comes from the coal industry," Roberts said. "This is a broader problem for me than it is, say, the Sierra Club or the EPA."

The rule, which was unveiled last week, would require new power plants to limit their greenhouse gas emissions to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. It's a target that combined-cycle natural gas plants can easily meet but that would require coal-fired power plants to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The rule allows utilities to build a new plant that emits up to 1,800 pounds per megawatt-hour for the first decade of operation, if the plant is later retrofitted to capture 70 to 90 percent of its emissions.

Environmentalists have pushed back against the idea that CCS is unrealistic for utilities investing in new coal plants. They point to seven CCS projects that are already planned, including one at Mississippi Power Co.'s Kemper County coal plant, a high-tech integrated gasification combined cycle plant.

"There are basically full-scale coal plants moving forward [with CCS] in Texas, Mississippi and Illinois that would employ CCS and which could meet this standard," said John Coequyt, the Sierra Club's senior climate and energy representative.

The federal government has already done a great deal to support the development of CCS technologies, both through subsidies and now by creating a regulatory incentive for utilities to invest in it, Coequyt said. He doesn't buy the argument, he said, that utilities should not have to incur any new costs in order to move ahead with new coal plants.

"I guess what they're saying is that CCS shouldn't be required until it's cheaper than conventional coal," he said. "And that's not where the administration landed."

In a recent statement, EPA said coal-mining supporters had little to worry about.

"EPA does not anticipate this rule will have any impacts on the price of electricity, employment or labor markets, or the U.S. economy," the agency said. "That would include the coal mining sector."

But like other coal industry boosters, Roberts chafed at EPA touting CCS as a means to comply with the rules.

"That technology is not commercially available," he said. "So what does that mean? In the future, we are going to something besides coal."

Senate Dem opposes Obama's clean-energy push

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also railed against EPA's environmental oversight of coal mining and coal-fueled power plants yesterday during a speech at American Electric Power Co. Inc.'s John Amos generating station.

"Under those rules," he said, "we won't see any new coal-fired plants built, and that is a grave mistake."

Manchin, who is up for re-election this year, also took credit for helping block legislation in the Senate that would launch an economywide cap-and-trade program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

He said, "It started when I told the leader of my party in the Senate, Harry Reid, that the only way that I could give him any support would be if he could assure me that the cap-and-trade bill was dead -- and would stay dead."

Manchin also took a shot at President Obama's clean energy policy and the recent Solyndra scandal: "Don't pour $500 million into a solar company that declares bankruptcy," he said. "Instead invest in advanced fossil fuel technology like carbon capture sequestration."

Despite his misgivings, Manchin is running under the same party banner as the president this November. And when pressed by host Hoppy Kercheval, Roberts said he won't actively campaign against Obama.

"Whether we are going to go out and campaign against the president, I think the answer to that is no," he said. "The question that is really on the table here is, will we endorse the president."