Tomblin wants EPA to look at whole picture

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin says he plans to get his point across to federal EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a meeting set for Thursday morning in Washington, D.C.

The governor will be joining other leading Democrats in the meeting. He said Wednesday he’ll make two key points. 

 “Look beyond the clean air and clean environment. We all want that,” Tomblin said. “There are ways to do it but you have to be realistic. You also have to look at the human part. Look at the jobs that are being lost in coal mining and what that’s doing to families.”

McCarthy just took over for former administrator Lisa Jackson. She agreed to meet with the West Virginia delegation during her first full week on the job.

In an interview with the New York Times this week McCarthy said there’s no war on coal.

“We don’t have a war on coal,” she said. “We’re doing our business, which is to reduce pollution. We’re following the law.”

But Tomblin said again Wednesday EPA moves in recent years, including delaying the approval of coal permits and putting stricter emissions standards on coal-fired power plants, are directly tied to the problems in the state budget.

“Because of the loss of severance tax, because of the loss of personal income tax and even consumer sales tax,” he said. “There are good paying jobs and these miners are trying to do things and abide by the law but when the law keeps changing it makes it very difficult.”

It appears it’s the human element the governor wants to push most.

“Sometimes Washington completely forgets to look at that part at what those polices they’re making do to people in West Virginia,” he said. “I’m not sure that we’ll change the (Obama) administration’s policy but at least I want to sit down across the table from her (McCarthy) and say, ‘Look at the whole picture when you are looking at the changes that have been inflicted on the state of West Virginia,’” the governor said.