Capito looking forward to McConnell leadership on coal

U.S. Senator-elect Shelley Moore Capito is scheduled to take the oath of office Tuesday in Washington, D.C. She recently expressed some optimism about how coal would fare with the federal EPA in the last two years of the Obama administration.

“(New Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell is in charge of the agenda in the Senate and he’s from a coal state. Eastern Kentucky has been very sharply hit by the downturn in the coal industry,” Capito said.

Capito said the EPA hasn’t been listening to coal states the last few years but she predicted that’s about to change. The 7-term congresswoman said there’s a role for the EPA.

“EPA policies that make sense–that have deadlines that can be met–that ask for technology that can be afforded or exist,” Capito said. “Right now, the deadlines and the parameters the EPA has put out there are unreasonable.”

Capito repeated McConnell’s leadership would be key.

“With Mitch McConnell at the head we’re going to have opportunities. We’re going to say, ‘you can’t spend money moving forward on this until you justify what you’re doing with it,'” Capito said.