Opinion Contributor
Barack Obama’s campaign against coal
![A coal plant is pictured. | AP Photo A coal plant is pictured. | AP Photo](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20121110234218im_/http://images.politico.com/global/news/110619_coal_plant_ap_328.jpg)
During President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, he declared one of his energy goals was to “bankrupt” the coal industry by making electricity prices “skyrocket.” That policy statement kick-started the president’s continuing war on coal miners, their families and the millions of Americans who rely on affordable coal-fired electricity.
Since his election, the president has tried at every turn to make that goal a reality — ardently supporting a cap-and-trade national energy tax and imposing onerous regulations on coal production. The president and his administration are waging a war on coal.
Continue ReadingThe nonpartisan U.S. Energy Information Administration has all but confirmed the president’s aggressive war on coal with a report detailing a record number of coal-fired power plants to be closed this year — largely because of burdensome regulations and other compliance costs. Worse, 175 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be shut down from 2012 to 2016, EIA estimated, requiring 27 gigawatts of electricity — enough to power 27 million homes — to be replaced by more expensive forms of energy.
The shuttering of record numbers of coal-fired power plants threatens thousands of the 555,270 direct and indirect coal-related jobs that help supply America with nearly half of its generated electricity and pay $36 billion in wages.
The House Natural Resources Committee has, over the past 18 months, aggressively investigated the Obama administration’s decision to rewrite a coal production regulation known as the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule. This has been one of the most direct, yet covert, actions by the administration to destroy coal mining jobs and hurt coal production.
The Obama administration discarded a rule that underwent five years of environmental review and public comment; entered into a court agreement with environmental groups to rewrite the rule in an unachievable time frame; spent millions of taxpayer dollars and hired new contractors to do the rewrite; fired the contractors when it leaked that the revision would cost 7,000 jobs; attempted to manipulate data to conceal the true economic impact; and is now hiding its final rule from the public until after the election.
Readers' Comments (22)
The nonpartisan U.S. Energy Information Administration has all but confirmed the president’s aggressive war on coal with a report detailing a record number of coal-fired power plants to be closed this year — largely because of burdensome regulations and other compliance costs
BECAUSE NATURAL GAS IS CHEAPER..AND CLEANER...AND SAFER
SEE IF YOU CAN BLAME THAT ON OBAMA !
Those pesky regulations keep the Koch Bros. from making a decent living. Coal is still very profitable, even if companies pay union wages with benefits, follow safety regulations and comply with EPA standards. If it were not, they would not be mining it. More miners die in non-union mines than union mines. Peabody Energy makes a profit and has unionized operations. It should also be noted that underground mines employ more people than strip or mountain top removal operations without the very bad environmental damage.
There is no such thing as clean coal.
My father came to the US as a 12 year old, and after high school, started in the west virginia coal mines.
Quite a few relatives maimed in the mines.
Doc Hastings is Chair of the radical GOP House Committee on Natural Resources, and he has been in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Coal for years.
This opinion piece clearly shows whose side he stands on: His first allegiance is to the Global Energy Cartel, and not to the regular Americans who trusted him with their votes, and whose interests, clean air, clean water, clean politics, cheap energy, he is supposed to represent.
Disgusting, contemptible, and just plain Shameful.
So Doc Hastings ( R-WA) is a friend of the coal-mine owners, eh? I wonder why :
Top 5 Industries, 2011-2012, Doc Hastings Campaign Contributions
Industry……………….....…………Total
Mining………………....…………$99,028
Oil & Gas…………………………$94,299
Sea Transport……….......………$51,000
Retired…………….....……………$49,500
Crop Production & Basic Processing……$47,450
Doc Hastings is Chair of the radical GOP House Committee on Natural Resources, and he has been in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Coal for years.
I live in the Seattle area, but Hastings represents eastern WA which is more like Alabama. He is scum.
Obama doesn't care about the coal industry, the workers, the users or how much our electrical bills will soar. He tried Cap and Trade through Congress it failed by for good reason, the majority of the American People said No. Now he is using the EPA to get what he wants while the Democrats sit back and watch it happen. So in reality Obama and none of the Democrats care about this country at all. They would rather see us spend money that we don't have for the ever increasing cost for energy. Forget the fact that we have over 25 million people without jobs and a job outlook that doesn't look good because of increased regulation at every level of Government. This is just about like Obama-Care, it is being forced on us without our voices being heard.
I believe Obama is doing all he can to make things harder for this economy to improve and the all of the Democrats are following him. That makes it a lot easier to vote them out of office come November too.
Here it is in his own words:
When the Obama administration is not apologizing to those who attack our embassies they are busy putting our domestic energy suppliers out of business.
It will all become clearer when you are paying $7/gal for gasoline and have to deal with rolling blackouts and higher utility bills.
Then you will be crying why didn't someone tell us this was going to happen.
The reason this clown wants to continue using the fuel of cavemen is that he is a neanderthal himself.
Hastings is on coal's generous payroll and committed to its protection. He's on the make constantly and
does his part in keeping the congressional rating for corruption at 98%.
After reading the first few comments, I'll just skip the "maybe you'd prefer to live in the dark" comment, in as much as I know the answer is "yes".
Corruption in America seems to be as high as ever. And the GOP fans the flames with deregulation of an already severely corrupted culture. The GOP has lost all of its common sense, good morals, and leadership in a tough situation. The GOP backs down to industry every time.
Coal is the new tobacco and corrupt politicians and hacks like Hastings need to be called out.
Every killing industry comes up with clever slogans, such as, clean coal and filtered cigarettes, They mean nothing but American laws in marketing are non-existent. Marketing laws protect industries not consumers.
War on coal. I wonder if they had a "war on horses" when they started making cars, or was it "war on blacksmiths"? I think we had a "war on coal/wood burning railroad engines". Coal is a dirty fuel, period. If we can find a better source, think natural gas, we should use it. When we stopped using wood for heating homes and making dinner was there a "war on wood"?
If people were truly concerned over the future of coming generations, coal and oil exploitation would be stopped altogether! Why? What will happen when coal and oil are depleted, no more anywhere! What will that generation rely on since the previous ones talked but did not act? Alternative energy needs to be developed now and perfected. It may be too late on account $$$$ is king.
Are you voting for Obama? http://celebrity-plugs.com/t/<...
Obozo is a clown!!! An empty suit!!!
Rep Hastings, I will ask you the same questions I asked Mitch McConnell.
With all of the workers in the coal fields hurting:
why are you fighting to reduce unemployment benefits?;
why are you working to reduce food stamps?;
why are you not proposing and funding "clean coal" studies?
When all is said and done
More is said than DONE
President Obama can easily push his own EPA policy down the throats of states who rely on coal for jobs and cheaper utility rates only because those elected to represent such a state allow it. Example: Rockefeller in W.Va.
The stupidity of the American voter never ceases to amaze me. Why has Osama Obama begun this war on COAL?
Well anyone who knows who his previous main client was when he was still a Lawyer would be able to answer that question.
Exelon. Who is Exelon? Well here in Illinois they are better known as Commonwealth Edison Company, provider of most of the electricity in Illinois. What does Osama Obama's war mean for Exelon? Doubling of electric rates to all of its customers and and addition of several BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR to the bottom line profits of Exelon, which I am sure that Osama Obama will get a nice piece of once he leaves the White House if his war succeeds.
Why would Exelon make so much more in profits if Osama Obama wins their war? Simply because virtually all of their electric power is generated by nuclear power, with some via wind or solar.
The fact is that Exelon has owns 17 nuclear reactors in 10 power plants. They are the second largest generator of electric power in the USA and Canada. They have a capacity of 35,000 megawatts of electric power to sell and electric power in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.
They own ONLY THREE coal fired generating plants, two of which they are minority owners of. So getting rid of coal as a method of generating electric power would not hurt them at all since they have an unused nuclear plant in Zion Illinois that can generate more electric power than all three of those coal fired generators combined. They also have "wind farms" in Illinois, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri.
They also have a solar generation plant in Chicago. They have hydro plants in PA and Maryland. They generate 55% of their energy by nuclear power, 24% using Natural Gas, 8% by renewable means which are mostly hydro with fractions of a percent from wind and solar, 7% from crude oil and only 6% from coal.
Their "safe nuclear" plant was shut down in 1998 after an accident that caused their steam pipes to be so damaged that it would cost $435 MILLION to repair and the plant's license would have expired before they earned back the $435 million cost of repair in 2013. This plant is only 40 Miles north of Chicago and 45 miles south of Milwaukee so the accident endangered two major metropolitan areas (including where my family and I live).
So Osama Obama's "safer, cleaner" electric generation policies risked the lives of over 10,647,371 Americans for the sake of his best client! That is not what I would define as being Green about our environment.
Chicago and Milwaukee should not be the same as Chernobyl! Actually if the Zion plant had done what the Chernobyl plant did, the effects would have contaminated the entire Midwest and Mid South all the way to the Gulf of Mexico because Zion is built right next to Lake Michigan which drains into the Mississippi River via the Chicago River and would have spread East through all 5 of the Great Lakes, the largest fresh water source on earth.
But Osama Obama would have still received his lawyers fees representing Exelon in this potential disaster.
Obama's assault on all fossil fuels with the cap and trade bill, HR 2454, which he helped ram through the Pelosi led house in 2009, is as much or more about expanding Federal government power, and government directed redistribution of money, as it is about clean energy. The green jobs czar appointed when Obama first came to office, Van Jones, was a card carrying member of the communist party who advocated a takeover of the energy sector for the purpose of providing "social justice to minorities". Fortunately, Obama was not able to ram the cap and trade bill through his own Democrat led Senate.
Obama is not done with his assault on fossil fuels. The Sierra Club, who initially enlisted some help from natural gas producers to help with the political assault on the coal industry, have now turned their attention and attack on to natural gas, now terming natural gas dirty. Obama's former energy czar, Carol Browner, has recommended that the Obama administration blackmail the natural gas industry in a second term in to supporting cap and trade by threatening to regulate the natural gas out of profitable fracking for natural gas if they don't go along cap and trade.
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