Arch Coal Responds to Final "Clean Power Plan" Rule

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE:ACI) issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final "Clean Power Plan" rule.

"The Administration seems increasingly desperate to salvage an ill-advised and poorly designed rule, which won't work, won't pass muster with states, and won't stand up to legal scrutiny," said Deck Slone, Arch's senior vice president of strategy and public policy.  

"Even prior to the expensive overhaul announced today, seven governors had stated that they did not plan to comply. That number seems certain to grow as other governors realize that, rather than fix the rule, EPA has in many ways made matters worse."  

In addition, more than 20 states are already preparing to challenge the rule in court.

Previously, NERA Economic Consulting reported that the proposed rule would cost as much as $479 billion, and that it would drive up electricity rates by double digits in 43 states. If anything, the overhauled rule threatens to push costs and power prices even higher.

Arch Coal believes that premature and costly regulations are not the answer to addressing climate concerns. Instead, Arch urges the Administration to ramp up dramatically its investments in low-carbon fossil fuel technologies, which currently total just a small fraction of overall government spending on energy.   

"China, India and the rest of emerging Asia are building their economies on fossil fuels generally and coal specifically, which they view as their most affordable, reliable and secure energy option," Slone said. "To truly address the threat of climate change, these countries will need low-cost, low-carbon mitigation tools for fossil fuels. The Administration's rule will do nothing to deliver such tools and could in fact slow their development here in the West, even as it hurts American ratepayers, American businesses and American competitiveness."

"We urge states to contest the rule vigorously and to defend their longstanding authority to manage their electric power systems in the way they deem most cost-effective, prudent and wise," Slone said.

Forward-Looking Statements:  This press release contains "forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to future, not past, events.  In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," or "will."  Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain.  For us, particular uncertainties arise from changes in the demand for our coal by the domestic electric generation industry; from legislation and regulations relating to the Clean Air Act and other environmental initiatives; from operational, geological, permit, labor and weather-related factors; from fluctuations in the amount of cash we generate from operations; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature.  These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements.  We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.  For a description of some of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results, you should see the risk factors described from time to time in the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SOURCE Arch Coal Inc.