WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it will begin the process of repealing President Obama's efforts to clean up coal-fired power plant emissions, a gesture hailed by business interests but reviled by environmental groups.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told a group of coal miners in Hazard, Kentucky that he'll formally unveil a proposal to repeal Obama's Clean Power Plan on Tuesday, proclaiming: "The war on coal is over."

He said the past administration used "every bit of power and authority to use the EPA to pick winners and losers and how we generate electricity in this country. That's wrong."

Obama's EPA unveiled the controversial proposal to control greenhouse gas emissions in 2015, but it immediately faced legal challenges from states including Ohio, which argued it would dramatically increase electric rates while offering few tangible environmental benefits.

Dismantling Clean Power Plan = one more glaring example how this administration can't grasp climate change reality:https://t.co/RUUFq2Pjlv — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) October 9, 2017

Because of the legal challenges, none of its requirements were in place before the Trump administration's decision to rescind it, said FirstEnergy spokeswoman Stephanie Walton. The company gets 55 percent of its energy from coal.

"At this point, there is no immediate impact, but we will keep a close eye on the regulatory process," said Walton, adding that the company has invested more than $10 billion on environmental enhancements since the Clean Air Act became law in 1970. She also said FirstEnergy has reduced greenhouse gas emissions more than 40 percent below 2005 levels, and anticipates the company's carbon dioxide emissions will continue to decline.

One of the coal companies that challenged the Obama plan - Beachwood's Murray Energy Corporation - released a statement Monday that said it fully supports the decision by President Donald Trump and Pruitt to "fully repeal the so-called Clean Power Plan."

The statement from corporate counsel Gary Broadbent estimated the policy's cancellation saved "over 25,000 American jobs," and pledged to continue working with the Trump administration "to preserve low-cost, reliable electricity in America, and to protect the thousands of jobs and family livelihoods that rely on the United States coal industry."

Murray Energy, its employees and its political action committee donated several hundred thousand dollars to Trump's election bid, according to a tally from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency welcomes the repeal action as it never believed U.S. EPA had the authority to mandate the Clean Power Plan, said spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer. Since 2000, Ohio has seen a 36.7 percent reduction in carbon dioxide from its coal-fired power plants and experienced even greater reductions of other air pollutants, including a 92.2 percent decrease in sulfur dioxide and at least 65 percent decrease in nitrogen oxides from these same power plants, Griesmer said.

Environmental groups were upset by Pruitt's announcement and promised legal challenges. The League of Conservation Voters protested the action would threaten peoples' health, worsen climate change and continue "the cycle of monstrous hurricanes and wildfires that are devastating countless communities."

"Seas are rising, croplands are turning to desert, storms, floods and wildfires are raging," agreed Natural Resources Defense Council president Rhea Suh. "And it all gets worse if we let Trump walk away from the chance to clean up our dirty power plants, create half a million good-paying clean energy jobs and protect our children and communities from the growing dangers of climate change."