Maloney to Tomblin: Call on Obama to fire EPA head - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Maloney to Tomblin: Call on Obama to fire EPA head

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By Whitney Burdette - email

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The day following Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's order to West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw to join 21 other states in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency's MACT rule, Republican gubernatorial challenger Bill Maloney is calling on the governor to push President Barack Obama to fire the EPA's administrator.

If Tomblin supports coal, Maloney said in a news release, he will support the firing of Lisa Jackson.

"It is surprising that a 37-year career politician like Earl Ray Tomblin doesn't understand that the EPA is doing exactly what Barack Obama wants: bankrupting the coal industry," Maloney said. "Today I am calling for Lisa Jackson to be fired. Hopefully Tomblin will follow my lead on this as well."

The MACT rule regulates the emission of hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants. That rule, according to a news release from Tomblin's office, "has already caused electric utilities to announce plans to shut down coal-fired power plants in West Virginia."

"This is a shining example of the EPA, an unelected federal bureaucracy, making policy without regard to the economic impact of its decisions," Tomblin said. "I will continue to fight for West Virginia jobs and against the EPA's ideologically driven, job-killing agenda." 

But to win the fight, according to Maloney, the only way to win the "war on coal" is to campaign against Obama, something Maloney has promised he would do.

"There is only one way to stop the war on coal: defeat Barack Obama," Maloney said. "Sending letters to ‘Washington bureaucrats' and calling out ‘unelected officials' is nothing but political rhetoric. I am the only candidate for governor who is actively campaigning against Barack Obama and who will be voting against him."

But Tomblin campaign spokesman Chris Stadelman said Tomblin is fighting for WEst Virginia jobs.

"While Bill Maloney spews empty rhetoric, Governor Tomblin is taking real action to stand up for West Virginia jobs," Stadelman said. "The governor is suing the EPA and fighting the Obama administration, and those efforts recently helped win one federal case. Bill Maloney must again be spending too much time at his exclusive Georgia getaway to pay attention to what's really happening in our state."