-
Coal Shoulder
November 7, 2012 | 17 comments
-
In Virginia, Turnout Matters
October 26, 2012 | 35 comments
Special Report
Hope Turned Into Damnation
Obama’s war on coal will help him lose Virginia, a Sunday rally promised.
GRUNDY, Va. — More than 5,500 people turned out Sunday afternoon at a mountaintop park in remote Buchanan County to show their support for coal.
With the “War on Coal” rhetoric that’s been on a lot of Republicans’ lips this election season, a lineup of political speakers that included Matt Romney, son of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, came to talk about the resource that powers both the electricity and the economy here.
“Right now our country is in dire straits,” Matt Romney said, promising that his father, if elected, would make the nation energy independent by 2020. “We can’t ignore the vast natural resources we have in this country: coal, natural gas, oil.”
In coal country, the issue is complex. On one hand, the Appalachian coal industry has been steadily losing jobs in recent decades, due in part to mechanization and declining reserves. On the other hand, new policies implemented by the Obama administration have had a painful, immediate impact.
It was clear in the mood of the crowd Sunday. Some talked about how thousands of recent coal industry layoffs have impacted their families and communities; others said they go to work every day wondering if they will still have a job when they get there.
“The only promise Obama kept was to kill coal,” said Jerry Shortt, a coal miner from Richlands who was laid off temporarily right after Labor Day — and learned Friday that for him, along with 189 other employees at the mine where he worked, the layoff would be permanent.
“You see all these people? I bet you a quarter of them’s laid off,” he said. “I know a lot of people that did [vote for Obama] that are not going to next time. Hope turned into damnation.”
THE WAR THAT COAL MINERS and companies perceive is one being fought on several fronts, said Barbara Altizer, executive director of the Eastern Coal Council, one of five industry-funded groups that sponsored Sunday’s rally.
“They come at us on the air side. They come after us on the water side. They’ve stopped the permits, so that’s like starving us. And EPA has started… allowing various anti-coal groups to run things into the ground.”
On the air emissions side, two new sets of EPA rules have cut both the present and future use of coal.
First, new air emissions standards prompted utilities to announce the closure of dozens of coal-fired power plants, cutting the demand for coal and costing jobs. In some cases, utilities chose to convert those units to natural gas, which because of new technology for extraction has become relatively cheap and plentiful. Rules for coal-fired boilers have also affected factories and other facilities that use industrial boilers.
Second, a new proposed EPA rule would require any new coal-fired power plants to be constructed with technology to control carbon dioxide emissions — technology that’s not been fully developed. With this proposal, even state-of-the-art coal burning technology, like that being used at the new power plant that just opened in nearby Wise County, couldn’t be permitted, utility officials have said.
On the water pollution side, coal mines are now subject to new restrictions in obtaining the permits needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Targeted specifically at mountaintop mines in Appalachia, according to industry supporters, the change effectively prohibits modern surface mining and has also created significant problems for deep mining.
At the same time, hundreds of mining permits have been suspended in limbo for the years of the Obama administration, with the federal agencies in charge of processing these permits choosing to simply take no action.
At mines that are presently operating, miners say federal safety inspectors have also increased their efforts, going to great lengths to find “nit-picky” violations for which they can charge thousands of dollars in fines.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (38) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Debra McCown
More Articles From Special Report
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/10/22/hope-turned-into-damnation
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
spike59| 10.22.12 @ 6:39AM
Grundy, VA has a population of just over 1000; the whole of Buchanon County has a population of under 25000. this would be like 1.6 million people in NYC coming out to hear a candidate speak
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.22.12 @ 4:26PM
Coal also means synthetic oil, which is dirty too-- but will be needed after oil runs out, probably.
Appleby| 10.22.12 @ 6:57AM
I did volunteer work in Appalachian Tennessee in the 1980s, in an area where the mining of high-sulphur coal had been effectively ended by the EPA leaving a great many people without work. Although I am a city girl who had a lot to learn about the country, I was the only volunteer to live in the community and I could take a joke, so I saw and heard what the Hippie Scum, well meaning though they were, did to that community. And I attended a town meeting where a well-meaning hippie woman used the word "We" frequently as she tried to make it sound as if the community had decided to shut down the coal mines. When asked how the people were supposed to live, she suggested (1) tourism and (2) welfare. They were much more polite to her than I would have been. They told me afterwards that she wasn't unique.
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 7:13AM
Does anybody remember any of the promises made by Boydingo in 2008? Any of the statements made by Bathhouse Boy about Gas Prices and Electricity Prices?
I'm talking, here, to everyone who ISN'T Black.
He made lot's of Promises in 2008. Isn't it funny that the JOB KILLING ones are the only ones he kept.
He wanted Gas Prices to go through the Roof. Just ask his Chinese Energy Secretary. The one with the Physics degree, and has - I Guarantee You - never even Pumped his own Gas, let alone have any Clue as to the workings of America's Energy Sectors.
He Promised High Electricity Prices.
He Promised to BANKRUPT anyone with a Coal Fired Electrical Generating Plant with a Death of a Thousand Fines.
He promised to put Taxpayer Monies in to the hands of His Biggest Donours. (I mean - In to the hands of Green Energy Companies OWNED by his Biggest Donours.)
He Promised to Shackle the Oil and Natural Gas Companies, even going so far as to FORGE DOCUMENTS - to a Federal Judge - on the Environmental Impact of the BP Oil Rig Disaster, to Shut Down all Drilling in America's Waters. And, when the Judge denied their requests for their Moratorium - TWICE - he did it anyway.
All of those promises, he kept. You can throw in the XL Pipeline while you're at it. But, what about the other promises? What about his Promise to Cut the Deficit in half by the end of this year. What about all those Shovel Ready Infrastructure Jobs?
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 7:39AM
What about Transparency?
Why was he Running Guns to the most Brutal Killers in the Western Hemisphere, with No Tracking Mechanisms on any of them? What about the Million$ of Credit Card Donations to his Campaign - conveniently just under the Limit of Mandatory Verification - coming in from Overseas Computers?
I address these remarks to most of the Whites out there, some of the Hispanics, and (I would think) most of the Asians. (The people who work. The people who still feel Dead Inside, if they can't work and support their Families.)
The Blacks are pretty much Dead To Me, so to speak. They lost their Souls a long time ago. Lost what it means to Be a Man. A Father. A Husband. They would vote for the Black Mulatto if he Campaigned with a Bloody Knife in one hand, and a Severed Head, in the other because ONLY the Colour of his Skin matters to them.
The Content of his Character?
"That's for Punkass Honky Cracker MFers and dumb N*gga Unca Toms. Now, get out the way, I got B*tches that needs slapping around."
And, therein lies the problem.
Oakland. Detroit. Baltimore. Cleveland. Gary. Flynt. Camden. Newark.
The list of NO GO ZONES at Night, goes on and on.
Dead to me.
KyMouse| 10.22.12 @ 4:11PM
Severed head...bloody knife....reminds me of Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts's pirate flag, visible at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/inde.....svg&page=1
May Obama's ship sink on November 6.
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 5:53PM
Save it for Friday, Mouse.
PCC| 10.22.12 @ 8:04AM
Well, TLP, your racist rant about Blacks and Chinese are most unwelcome. Shame on you.
However, the fact remains that the U.S. should champion and exploit all of its energy resources, including, of course, coal, while mitigating the deleterious effects on the environment these extractive industries may cause.
We're all environmentalists now, but not to the point that the environazis desire, as they jet off to two-week symposiums on green energy and global warning.
When they start rowing boats to their confabs in Bali and South Africa, I'll start listening to them.
jothepro| 10.22.12 @ 8:19AM
What racist rants? If you are black and living in America, you get special treatment from people like you PCC. Especially if you are a black man living in the inner cities.
PCC| 10.22.12 @ 8:49AM
Got it, Jo. I guess talking to "everyone who isn't Black" and referring to the "Chinese" Energy Secretary is par for the course for you. It's a pity for you that the Know Nothing Party expired with the Civil War. I hope you've got cable and a full supply of canned goods in your underground bomb shelter.
Occam's Tool| 10.22.12 @ 6:13PM
The energy Secretary does not drive his own car. The Liberal Democratic policies on Black America have murdered millions of babies and put millions of Black men into prison, while causing generations of black children to be raised in moral and physical poverty, with no Black men around to raise the Black male children. The result has been Detroit/Chicago/LA/NYC /Washington, DC catastrophe. I have been a prison psychiatrist and seen this nightmare.
Tim may be less polite than you want, but his concern for the future of Black Children is hardly racist. It's the Liberals who are racist for condemning these children to a live of uneducated poverty by, for example, cutting off scholarships to Washington, DC private schools for Black kids, not Tim for pointing this out.
He notes that American Jews vote like idiots. This does not make him antisemitic; indeed, few are the other posters at this site who have more concern and desire for the survival of the Jewish people than Tim.
Hyperbole sometimes gets the message across, as does shocking speech. But read the CONTENT and think.
Love ya, Tim.
Pecos Pete| 10.22.12 @ 9:19AM
PCC: You should look through the obvious overstatements by TLP and think about reality. That's what Tim is talking about: Reality. Think Rhodesia/now Zimbabwe, and other radical African countries which are roadmaps for black controlled cities in America. It is Reality, not Racism.
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 11:47AM
Exactly.
I'm mailing you my underwear, as we speak.
squalis| 10.22.12 @ 9:42AM
I understand, and agree with you, that the "rant" is ugly. Nonetheless, I did not see anywhere in your comments that you disagree with the points TLP made. You merely called him a racist, a word so egregiously overused as a defense in the last 4 years when legitimate criticism is leveled at Obama that it has lost much of its sting. I suspect strongly that is because you, just as I do, understand and agree with the point being made with the extreme language.
I think it is also true that there are many blacks who have made it out of those inner city environments and don't fit into the generalizations made by TLP. The problem is that when these successful people try to speak out, discuss what is wrong with inner city black America, when they try to effect positive change or hold different views from their mainstream, they are essentially excommunicated from their roots. Think Bill Cosby some years back, or Clarence Thomas, Allen West, or Alan Keyes. I also think TLP makes a great point in the racism of blacks. How can their support for Obama be so monolithic given the devasation of their communities over the past 4 years?
squalis| 10.22.12 @ 9:42AM
TLP is a righteous dude!
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 11:49AM
Exactly.
I'm mailing you Pecos Pete's underwear, as we speak.
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 11:41AM
There are Blacks that don't fit the Template, but they don't even number enough to be a Rounding Error.
WSJ/CBS - Black Voter Poll.
Obama 98%
Romney 0%
And, I'm Racist?
Blacks make up 12% of the population, yet they Commit 56% of all of the Violent Crimes in the Country.
But, I'm Racist.
So, anyone that wants to call me a Racist, go ahead. The Numbers don't lie. Neither do the Unemployment Rates for Blacks 17%. Unemployment Rates for Black Youth 50%.
Incarceration Rates.
Poverty Rates.
Dropout Rates.
Foreclosure Rates, and on and on and on and on.
NOTHING has gotten better for Black America since The Magic Negro took the Stage. NOTHING.
In fact, everything is WORSE.
Obama 98%
Romney 0%
The Truth may Hurt, but there's nothing Racist about it.
Blacks are the most Racist Group in America. That's why NO OTHER GROUP gets along with them.
They hate everyone, and everyone hates them.
But, I'm Racist.
RCV| 10.22.12 @ 6:09PM
You are a racist.
Occam's Tool| 10.22.12 @ 6:15PM
Actually, Liberals designed the trap that Blacks are in. Liberals do NOT have the best interest of Blacks in mind.
Occam's Tool| 10.22.12 @ 6:18PM
And, of course, keeping in mind that the majority of the Black Docs I have worked with are excellent.
The color of the skin does not determine the content of the character, save where government intervention does its best to make it so. Liberal policies are responsible for Black poverty and high incarceration rates. The War on Poverty has been a dismal failure. In addition, Planned Parenthood targets Black Babies for the kill, abetted by Obama.
I want to see the Black Community thrive and do well. I want to see them rich and highly educated.
Curtis Rasmussen| 10.22.12 @ 2:49PM
In the eyes of the media and the liberal race hustlers in America, I don't exist.
TLP| 10.22.12 @ 7:50AM
Ohio is a Coal State, as is Pennsylvania.
Von Mises Jr| 10.22.12 @ 8:52AM
The Marcellus Natural Gas formation sits in NY, much of PA and parts of OH and touches VA. Another four years and the EPA will make sure that is out of bounds as well with the war on fracking.
When the socialist tell you they want to reduce your carbon footprint, that is their way of telling you that you must live in an Agenda21 “stack and pack” apartment and work for a crony capitalist such as Buffet or Immelt.
The government will own the natural resources and provide just enough energy to get you to the factory by light rail. You will not be allowed to travel to the mountains. WV is a beautiful place with steep mountains and great white water rafting. Obama does not want you to go there. You will be too busy working for the Nobles.
Pecos Pete| 10.22.12 @ 9:22AM
In another time, in another place ... the Obama Administration would be called a Fascist Government.
Von Mises Jr| 10.22.12 @ 11:16AM
I think I have said that repeatedly, my friend Pete. Fascism is government "control” of the means of production. Why do you think GM had been building Volts? Why were Solyndra and Solar Trust making solar panels? Why is Ener1 and A123 failed lithium battery companies?
They have their hooks in the banks and Health Care, and their eye on so much more.
At least Mussolini made the trains run on time.
It is a damn shame that I made 100% gains on SQM, not because they are some great company, but because the regime mandated lithium batteries. When Romney wins, I will sell the other half that I am sitting with for free.
spike59| 10.24.12 @ 4:35PM
in this time, in this place, I call it a Fascist Government...and that's being polite
Al Adab| 10.22.12 @ 9:35AM
In 2008 the now president promised that he would ruin the coal industry. Already gasoline (another fuel hated by the Left) is a financial constraint on most families. Electricity prices continue to rise everywhere. All this is an agenda deriving from the belief that America is too rich, uses too many resources, and is a danger therefore to the poor of the world. Never mind the facts or the truth of it, that is their Faith.
Butch| 10.22.12 @ 7:52PM
Al, this thread seems to be all about truth for some reason. For that reason it's the most interesting one I've ever read. Keep it up, TLP. RCV: You're the one who's evil. The truth is the ultimate good. You're right, of course, by your sides' definition.
squalis| 10.22.12 @ 9:50AM
Confine the lefties to the road in a Volt or Fisker Karma.
Confine their home energy purhases to products from the below listed companies:
1.Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
2.SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3.Solyndra ($535 million)*
4.Beacon Power ($43 million)*
5.Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
6.SunPower ($1.2 billion)
7.First Solar ($1.46 billion)
8.Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
9.EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
10.Amonix ($5.9 million)
11.Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
12.Abound Solar ($400 million)*
13.A123 Systems ($279 million)*
14.Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
15.Johnson Controls ($299 million)
16.Schneider Electric ($86 million)
17.Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
18.ECOtality ($126.2 million)
19.Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
20.Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
21.Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
22.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
23.Range Fuels ($80 million)*
24.Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
25.Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
26.Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
27.GreenVolts ($500,000)
28.Vestas ($50 million)
29.LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
30.Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
31.Navistar ($39 million)
32.Satcon ($3 million)*
33.Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
34.Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)
*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.
squalis| 10.22.12 @ 9:56AM
Above list obtained from:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/.....-failures/
Pecos Pete| 10.22.12 @ 10:08AM
squalis: Nice. I wonder if you could add another footnote (with marker) for companies in the above list that have furloughed employees and are on the verge of closing plants or declaring bankruptcy.
19 of 34 companies in the list have declared bankruptcy. I'd sue an investment manager with a record like this. Come November 6 we will fire the current investment manager, next comes the lawsuits.
PS: Your list does not include GM (Volt) which would add a couple of billion dollars to the total money wasted. And probably a future bankruptcy.
squalis| 10.22.12 @ 11:55AM
On a quick search, I found this pathetic "jobs report" on Huffpo extolling job #'s in the green energy sector:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....56207.html
Curiously, it examines only 2003-2010 (maybe those are the latest available #'s, I don't know), but we know what has happenned since 2010, pretty much ignored by the article and posters.
Then there's this (much more interesting and relevant):
http://www.founderstruth.org/H.....Fraud.aspx
KyMouse| 10.22.12 @ 9:57AM
May Kentucky join its Virginia neighbor in rejecting Obama and using good 'ol American coal.
djn1313| 10.22.12 @ 10:05AM
obama has preached for years that he would transform the USA, weakening its military and economic power and turn it into a socialist state under the control of a world governing body. The last 3-1/2 years proves he is doing just what he preached, what don't those that voted for him understand? He is destroying their future. As for the coal industry, most of those that are employed by coal companies are white, need I say more.
Sherlocktoo| 10.22.12 @ 10:13AM
To all my friends who are both active and unemployed miners; this is an election about our future. We must vote to overthrow this regime'. We must also give Romney a senate to work with to protect our livelihood. Tim Kaine has been hand picked by Obama to oppose our way of life. Regardless of what Kaine says, he is Obama's man. Is their any reason to believe they support our way of life? NO! It is time to correct the mistake of 08.
Romney/Ryan and Allen in 2012, because americans deserve better!
Kwan| 10.22.12 @ 10:31AM
Now we can see that the real purpose of this Global Warming scamboozle was to give cover to the left's fraudulent War on Fossil Fuels and CO2. The left is expecting us to believe that our economy and way of life can function on "green energy" sources, that could hardly power a 60's hippie commune. It would seem that Obama and the left's vision for America is fundamentally transforming the country into a pre-industrialized third-world basket case -similar to Kenya- while China and India become world super-powers.
EL| 10.22.12 @ 1:44PM
When Obama first appeared on the scene, he told everyone openly what he planned to do to this country. How on earth could anyone who cares about the cost of electricity who has any connection to the coal industry, vote for him in the first place? Did everyone collectively lose their minds? He said "Electric rates will necessarily have to skyrocket, because we are going to put the coal industry out of business" How on earth did Obama ever carry a coal state in the first place? He said the middle class was 'clinging to their guns and their religion'....
It wasn't as if he didn't lay out his destructive policies while he was running. He wants to destroy any energy industry except alternative sources. We could see electric bills in excess of $300-500 a month! On top of health insurance doubling or tripling, taxes going through the roof, how much more damage could he do if, as he was overheard on a hot mic, 'tell Putin I'll have much more latitude after the elections' when he was in Russia.
Vote him out!
born conservative| 10.23.12 @ 1:18PM
Looks like the miners didn't hear an interview in 2007/2008 with Barry when he said under his "leadership" the coal mines would have to be phased out to allow the US to go green.
No pity for the fools that voted him in and then find adverse (no job) employment climate.
I'd say "I told ya so" if it would make me feel better.
The truth is, I hate to be so right on this subject since we all suffer under this empty suit as the POTUS!
VOTE THE RIGHT WAY THIS TIME AROUND--- REMEMBER THIS----REAGAN TURNED AROUND CARTER'S LIBERAL ECONOMIC NIGHTMARE.
LET'S HOPE ROMNEY WILL TOO!