Laid off coal miners, and some still employed, are compiling signatures for a class-action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act. The petition currently has thousands of signatures.
Those coal miners from West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania met on Sunday at the Moundsville Eagles Hall from noon to 6 p.m. to show their support for the lawsuit against the EPA for violations that occurred during the process of enacting legislation.
“This is a provision that can be challenged now. It is an administrative and legislative error. It doesn’t have to do with the final rule and we are not attacking the rule in its entirety. We’ll let the states and the coal companies do that at a later date,” said one of the plaintiffs, Kurtis Armann.
Armann said officials found serious problems that occurred during the legislative process, specifically the lack of peer review.
He adds the pending regulations are destroying economies and a way of life for people in West Virginia.
Armann anticipates the class to exceed 2,000 plaintiffs and if Indiana and Illinois get involved, it’ll reach between 4,000 to 5,000 plaintiffs.
