CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming, the nation's leading coal-producing state, is calling on the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a proposal to require new coal-fired power plants to employ carbon-capture technology.

Mead wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on Friday saying the EPA's proposed emissions standards for new coal-fired plants are a threat to Wyoming's economy. He says the state produces about 40 percent of the nation's coal while the Wyoming coal industry employs nearly 7,000 people.

The EPA proposal would require new coal plants to use carbon capture and sequestration technologies that Mead and other critics say haven't been proven on a commercial scale.

McCarthy told a U.S. Senate Committee recently that carbon capture and storage was feasible and would lead to significant emission reductions.

 

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