Reducing use of coal as energy will spike Missourians' bills

8 months ago

President and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri talks on WTAD's Morning Meeting

President and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri Ray McCarty was a guest on WTAD’s Morning Meeting Friday to discuss CountOnCoal.org.

Count on Coal is a campaign put together to inform Americans of the benefits of coal-generated electricity, while protecting and promoting the use of coal for power.

Associated Industries of Missouri has been around since 1919 and represents Missouri businesses, over half being manufacturing facilities across the State.

Manufacturing business, as we know, use a lot of power, and Missouri is able to have some of the lowest electric utilities rates because coal is used.

 “The association was concerned four years ago when Obama took office. Obama stated he was going to make it expensive to use coal to generate power- that he would drive the utilities into using other types of energy, says McCarty. “We joined the Count on Coal campaign because we need to have a reliable source of electric power and really right now coal provides that for us.”

McCarty adds, “82% of the Associated Industries of Missouri’s electric utility comes from coal generation.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a regulation that would force utility companies to move away from coal as an energy source.

McCarty says, “The Agency estimated the impact of their own regulation and said that’s going to raise electric rates between 2.8% and 6.3% in Missouri.”  

For more information about Count on Coal, visit countoncoal.org

To listen to this full interview, visit WTAD.com.