This week, the EPA is holding a series of public hearings on the agency’s proposal to cut emissions from existing power plants by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. EPA administrator Gina McCarthy says the agency has received “tremendous comments” so far, adding, “we’re excited to have these public hearings.”

McCarthy, unlike her prickly predecessor Lisa Jackson, is credited with being a pragmatic straight-shooter, but she sounds like she’s trying a bit too hard to convince us that the EPA is really interested in what those who disagree have to say about these punitive rules.

Not so much.

These hearings are formalities, awkward exercises for the powerful government agency that long since decided that the often discussed all-of-the-above energy strategy for this country does not include cheap, plentiful supplies of coal.

To read entire editorial, click here.