Incoming Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Tells EPA to 'Pound Sand' on Big Issue

Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin said in an appearance on The Glenn Beck Radio Program Friday that he will push back against the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to regulate the coal industry, telling the EPA to "pound sand."

Bevin's comments came after Glenn Beck asked, "Now that you're in, President Obama has said that he's going to destroy the coal industry. Kentucky is a coal state. What are you going to be doing specifically to push back on that?"

In August, President Barack Obama unveiled his coal policy in partnership with the EPA, granting the agency authority over what is traditionally a state responsibility.

According to Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at American Action Forum, the policy will cost $11.9 billion and 125,800 jobs, along with shuttering 66 power plants.

Bevin, a Tea Party favorite who became only the second Republican in four decades to win Kentucky's governorship Tuesday, vowed to stand against the EPA when it comes to protecting his state's large coal industry.

"Why it is that we in Kentucky — that sit on two extraordinary basins, the Illinois basin and the Central basin, an abundance of this — how are we not participating in something that the world wants more of than they ever have?" Bevin asked. "And so, from my way of thinking, we will tell the EPA and other unelected officials who have no legal authority over us as a state, to pound sand."

Bevin, a self-described "staunch conservative," told Beck he believes the 10th Amendment is "one of the most powerful tools" and that power not expressly given to the federal government is the responsibility of the states.

The incoming Kentucky governor said the EPA has "no authority" and that its only recourse would be to "take us to court." Bevin said that, in the past, the agency has "bribed us with our own money," but he insisted that will not happen anymore under his leadership.

"The EPA, for example, they don't have an enforcement arm," Bevin said. "They use federal dollars. They use our own money. They bribe us with our own money to stick it to ourselves. And we will not do that anymore in the state of Kentucky."

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