We’ve spoken previously about how Barack Obama is waging a war against the coal industry. Even though Candidate Obama openly told us that he aimed to bankrupt the industry, he has his toadie, former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, traveling around the state making a fool of himself by insisting that Obama is actually a friend to the coal industry.
Recently, ultra-liberal Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined Obama in attacking the energy source that provides 86% of Ohio’s electricity. Brown had a chance to join other Senators, including other Democrats, in getting rid of the EPA’s new Utility MACT rule, which is the centerpiece of the Obama’s administration’s self-declared goal of bankrupting coal plants and making electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”
Sherrod Brown talks a big game about standing with miners. He even boasts about the coal miner’s canary pin that he wears instead of a flag pin. But when it came time to cast a vote to protect the livelihoods of thousands of Ohio coal workers, he kicked them to the curb and voted to keep Obama’s extreme new coal regulations. Sherrod Brown jumped into the foxhole, and eagerly became a soldier against his own state in Obama’s war on coal.
The casualties continue. Last Friday, two coal companies announced that they are laying off workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that PBS Coals Inc. laid off about 225 workers from its 795-person workforce. The company’s CEO said,
“Additionally, the escalating costs and uncertainty generated by recently advanced EPA regulations and interpretations have created a challenging business climate for the entire coal industry.“
Also laying off workers was Ohio Valley Coal Co. of Alledonia, Ohio.
General Manager Ronald Koontz attacked the Obama administration for a “‘war on coal seeking to destroy the coal industry and the jobs of our own employees and the livelihoods of their families.
“Unfortunately, for us, this is just the beginning of workforce reductions,”
Sherrod Brown proudly calls himself a “strong progressive.” And shutting down coal plants is consistent with progressive values. Sherrod’s extreme progressive ideals might fit in a state like Vermont, but not a center-right state like Ohio.
I hope that a majority of Ohio voters join me in voting to elect Josh Mandel, and kick Sherrod Brown to the curb, like Brown is doing to the state’s coal workers.
