The Kentucky Coal Association is questioning how recently announced EPA rules on emissions will impact climate change worldwide. Association President Bill Bissett says shuttering all U.S. coal fired electrical plants would only impact three percent of carbon on the planet. He says countries like India, China, Spain, Germany, and Russia continue to move forward with coal fired power plant production. "We're not really gonna have an impact on climate change, like the president is wanting, because everyone else is moving toward coal," said Bissett. "So we're unilaterally making these decisions that are hurt our economy, make electricity more expensive at a time when the rest of the world in moving in the other direction."
Bissett believes an already diminished eastern Kentucky mining industry would suffer more job losses.
Tom Pearce, a representative with the Sierra Club believes the new EPA rules can help lead Kentucky into a stronger solar age. "That's gonna require technicians. That's gonna require people trained to install these things. It's gonna create a whole new economy," said Pearce.
Pearce says Kentucky features more sunshine than Germany. He says Germany is producing 70 percent of its power through solar means.?
