ST. LOUIS, Aug. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Arch Coal, Inc.
(NYSE:ACI) issued the following statement in response to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's final "Clean Power Plan"
rule.
"The Administration seems increasingly desperate to salvage an
ill-advised and poorly designed rule, which won't work, won't pass
muster with states, and won't stand up to legal scrutiny," said
Deck Slone, Arch's senior vice president of strategy and public
policy.
"Even prior to the expensive overhaul announced today, seven
governors had stated that they did not plan to comply. That number
seems certain to grow as other governors realize that, rather than
fix the rule, EPA has in many ways made matters
worse."
In addition, more than 20 states are already preparing to
challenge the rule in court.
Previously, NERA Economic Consulting reported that the proposed
rule would cost as much as $479
billion, and that it would drive up electricity rates by
double digits in 43 states. If anything, the overhauled rule
threatens to push costs and power prices even higher.
Arch Coal believes that premature and costly regulations are not
the answer to addressing climate concerns. Instead, Arch urges the
Administration to ramp up dramatically its investments in
low-carbon fossil fuel technologies, which currently total just a
small fraction of overall government spending on
energy.
"China, India and the rest of emerging Asia are building their economies on fossil
fuels generally and coal specifically, which they view as their
most affordable, reliable and secure energy option," Slone said.
"To truly address the threat of climate change, these countries
will need low-cost, low-carbon mitigation tools for fossil fuels.
The Administration's rule will do nothing to deliver such tools and
could in fact slow their development here in the West, even as it
hurts American ratepayers, American businesses and American
competitiveness."
"We urge states to contest the rule vigorously and to defend
their longstanding authority to manage their electric power systems
in the way they deem most cost-effective, prudent and wise," Slone
said.
Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains
"forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to
future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking
statements often address our expected future business and financial
performance, and often contain words such as "expects,"
"anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," or
"will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address
matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us,
particular uncertainties arise from changes in the demand for our
coal by the domestic electric generation industry; from legislation
and regulations relating to the Clean Air Act and other
environmental initiatives; from operational, geological, permit,
labor and weather-related factors; from fluctuations in the amount
of cash we generate from operations; from future integration of
acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national,
regional and global scale, including those of a political,
economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These
uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially
different than those expressed in our forward-looking
statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise, except as may be required by law. For a
description of some of the risks and uncertainties that may affect
our future results, you should see the risk factors described from
time to time in the reports we file with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
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SOURCE Arch Coal, Inc.