Some Numbers Behind The “Stop the War on Coal Act”

Matt Kibbe has asked FreedomWorks members to contact your legislators and urge them to vote “Yes” on H.R. 3409, aka the “Stop the War on Coal Act”. Here are some background numbers on why this is an important piece of legislation.

The EPA’s assassination attempts on the coal industry are manifested as hyperactive, expensive regulations that will cost tens of billions of dollars.

The regulatory cost of EPA’s actions is also staggeringly high for coal-fired plants. Two studies reviewed by the Government Accountability Office put the annual costs of just four major EPA regulations between $16 billion and $21 billion over the coming years.

This regulatory assault will not only prevent new coal plants from opening, it will destroy many existing facilities.

The regulatory barrage is expected to close 175 coal-fired electric generating units, and effectively bans the opening of any new coal-fired power plants, diminishing the reliability of electricity and increasing the cost across half the nation, the Senate report said.

Thousands of jobs have already been lost and many more are about to get hit.

The coal industry estimates its labor force at 135,000—Black is one of 2,000 who lost their jobs this year. Another 10,000 layoffs in direct and related jobs are expected in the coming months, and job loss estimates leaked from the Obama administration on the effects of just one water rule predicted another 7,000 coal jobs would be eliminated.

This is all happening at a time when substandard growth in employment is being cited as the reason for the Fed to roll the dice with an open-ended quantitative easing “stimulus”.

After 43 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent, the Federal Open Market Committee announced on Sept. 13 its third round of large-scale asset purchases since 2008. The FOMC for the first time didn’t set a limit on the amount the Fed will buy or the duration of purchases. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that day at a press conference he’ll add to the record stimulus until achieving “sustained improvement” in the labor market.

Here are a couple more harsh realities from the above-linked Human Events article.

Alternatives that are favorites of the administration will directly impact consumers.

What environmentalists and the administration don’t talk about, is that solar power alone would triple household electrical bills from $200 a month to $700 a month, according to a Heritage Foundation study.

Just how unpalatable is the Obama administration’s War on Coal? A long time staunch ally of the Democrats, the United Mine Workers of America, are not amused.

Obama administration policies have also annoyed leaders of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), a powerful force behind the Democratic Party that in a rare show of disloyalty skipped the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C. earlier this month and has so far refused to endorse Obama for a second term.

“The Navy SEALs shot Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington,” said Cecil Roberts, UMWA president during an April 3 radio show in West Virginia. “I noticed this past week the vice president was talking about the campaign and he mentioned that Osama Bin Laden was dead and General Motors was alive. He should have gone on to say that the coal industry is not far behind with respect to what happened with Osama Bin Laden.”

Can the fragile American economy withstand an all-out ideological assault on an entire industry that, at present, produces almost half of the country’s electricity?

How many ways can you say “no”?