Moe Lane

Well, your ability to guess why the Murray Energy Corporation today announced that it is closing a mine in Brilliant, Ohio will be largely dependent on whether you rely on local news or not. If you’re just paying attention to local news… you won’t be told at all why a coal mine that employed 239 people at its peak laid off 24 of its remaining 56 employees today, with the remaining to be (hopefully) integrated into the company elsewhere; in fact, you won’t even be told that the mine employed that many people directly. But if you go to the company’s own press release… yeah. That’s a different story.

Regulatory actions by President Barack Obama and his appointees and followers were cited as the entire reason. “Mr. Obama has already destroyed 83,000 megawatts of coal-fired electricity generation in America,” said Mr. Michael T. W. Carey, Vice President of Government Affairs for Murray Energy. “Electric prices in the recent PJM Interconnection monthly auction were bid up 800 percent (8 times) for 2015-2016 because of this,” he added. (more…)

Leo Gerard, the (Canadian) president of the United Steelworkers union? (Via Obama spokesflack @BenLaBolt)

Mr. Obama is committed to protecting clean air and clean water for our families while also helping the coal industry.

Or would it be… actually, hold on a second.  WHO ASKED foreign-born and foreign-national union leader Gerard his opinion on the 2012 American Presidential election?  WHY did the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette avoid noting that Mr. Gerard is not an American citizen?  And why is an official campaign surrogate like Ben LaBolt uncritically propagate an article where a FOREIGNER went on to directly attack an American politician? Particularly since said foreigner had previously called for a resistance movement in the United States AND was involved in the infamous 1999 WTO riots in Seattle?  Come right down to it, is there a single functional adult and competent political operative ANYWHERE in Obama for America?  At all?

OK.  Mini-rant over. (more…)

Will this be the 2012 election map?

If the Obama administration keeps up their War on Coal (literally: they consider coal more dangerous than terrorism), quite possibly.  And it may be at least partially because of coal. (more…)

(H/T: Instapundit) They’re particularly indignant that the President that so many of them supported has decided to let the EPA strangle their state’s core industry via the selective refusal of permits.  Which is not surprising, given that this administration’s hatred of the coal industry was not precisely a secret – but still, they’re upset:

West Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin III, who supported Mr. Obama’s candidacy, called the EPA moves part of a stealth campaign to stifle the industry.

“Right now, my belief is that they’re trying to kill off surface mining through regulation what they cannot get done through legislation,” Mr. Manchin told MetroNews Talkline, a West Virginia call-in radio program, earlier this month. In West Virginia, 23 permits are being held up, with other affected states being Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

His concern is shared by Sen. Rockefeller (also an Obama supporter) – but may I be blunt?  Let me be blunt: nobody cares.  Maybe West Virginia Democrats would have gotten a better deal if they had flipped the state.  Maybe.  But the state went strong for Clinton in the primary, and then went strong for McCain in the general, so they’re pretty much worthless by this administration’s standards.

And, again: this should surprise nobody.  The current ruling party’s elites do not want to increase the amount of energy that this country consumes. They want to decrease it, in fact.  They are not shy about saying so, either.  So there is no excuse for not knowing this all along; and any less at being affronted.  Angry, yes – but not affronted.

Moe Lane

PS: It should be noted that the Rep. Nick Rahall from Amanda’s article is happy to defend the administration’s hatred of the coal industry.  It should also be noted that Rep. Rahall is a 32-year Member of Congress who represents a R+6 district.  And he even has a challenger already: Lee Bias, who looks to be very sensible on energy and healthcare policy.

Crossposted to RedState.