Unions Finally See Obama’s War on Coal is Costing Jobs
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
By Tom Borelli
Obama’s war on coal represents a huge opportunity for Republicans.
A DailyCaller.com story, Unions protest Obama on coal, covers the growing recognition that Obama’s war on coal is costing them jobs.
The Boilermakers Local 154, a union representing workers in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, took a public stance against the EPA’s attack on the coal industry.
Responding to an editorial in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, in a letter to the editor a leader of the union said:
I represent more than 2,000 boilermakers in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. My members learned the hard way that the EPA’s goal isn’t clean air; it’s eliminating coal and our way of life.
Critics of coal malign the thousands of boilermakers, mine workers and hard-working men and women who earn an honest living in our region from coal. They insult us — calling us polluters and murderers. In its Aug. 6 editorial (“Coal Barons”), the Post-Gazette made outrageous claims about our livelihood, attacking our integrity and ignoring the tremendous environmental gains made by coal. In the last three decades, coal usage has tripled, but pollutants like sulfur dioxide have fallen by 56 percent.
The union thanked Republican Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania for supporting union workers.
The DailyCaller.com story also noted disapproval from the United Mine Workers Union about Obama’s climate change policy.
“The climate action plan outlined today by President Obama contains many lofty goals but nothing that speaks to the hardship and suffering his plan would cause to the lives of coal miners, their families and others in the communities where they live,” said WMW president Cecil E. Roberts.
The consequences of Obama’s aggressive anti-coal policy could force unions to abandon their support of Democrats in the upcoming 2014 election and help Republicans to maintain control of the House and make strides in taking power in the Senate.