EPA head tells coal miners ‘regulatory assault is over’

EPA head tells coal miners ‘regulatory assault is over’.
SYCAMORE, Pa. — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told dozens of Pennsylvania coal miners Thursday that the "regulatory assault" on their industry is over, and that the environment can be protected without hurting business.
"We’re going to do it the American way, grow jobs and show the rest of the world how it’s done," Pruitt said before going on a mine tour about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh.
"The regulatory assault is over," he said, referring to tightened environmental and other regulatory standards on coal and other energy industries under former President Barack Obama.
"We’re going to partner together with you."
It’s run by CNX Coal Resources.
Since assuming office, he has issued executive orders rolling back Obama-era federal regulations on planet-warming carbon emissions, lifted water pollution protections and ended a freeze imposed on leases of public lands for coal mining.
Several of the nation’s largest coal companies were forced to seek bankruptcy protection in the last year as electric utilities switch to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas made more plentiful through a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He went to work for the company 10 years ago right out of college, where he got a degree in industrial technology.
"It’s very early in the administration, but in the past eight years we’ve seen a systematic attack on the industry from top to bottom," she said.

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