Wyoming Candidates United for Coal, Against EPA
May 24, 2016 - Several Republican candidates vying to fill Wyoming's sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives are united against the Environmental Protection Agency's plans for coal.
The candidates say limiting EPA powers and repealing the Clean Power Plan are key to the future of the nation's largest coal producer. For voters, the question may be who will be able to turn rhetoric into action.
According to a study conducted by the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy in 2015, coal generates 14 percent of Wyoming's gross state product and provides $1.3 billion, or 11 percent, of all revenue collected by the state. If passed, the proposed Clean Power Plan would require Wyoming to reduce carbon emissions by at least 19 percent. Without a statewide move to reduce energy demands, the Center for Energy Economics predicted that by 2030, state revenue generated by the coal industry will be reduced by as much as 60 percent while employment across the state will drop by over 3 percent.
Already since 2008, state revenue from coal has dropped 17 percent. Wyoming is the largest coal producer in the U.S.
Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a Teton County resident, has called for reducing the size and authority of the EPA.
"We need a revolution on regulations," Liz Cheney said.
State Sen. Leland Christensen of Alta says the EPA has gone too far, and that he can build a bipartisan, multi-state coalition to rein it in. Rex Rammell says the EPA "epitomizes everything that is wrong with the federal government" and proposes declaring that it is agency non grata in Wyoming. State Rep. Tim Stubson said Congress should do more to trim "governmental overreach."