American coal companies have crowned House Speaker John Boehner as King Coal.
Over the first half of 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported coal companies have dug over $1.5 million to Boehner's political operation. More than 10 percent of the $12.5 million Boehner collected from January 1 to June 30, 2011 came from the coal industry. They gave less than $200,000 to Boehner during the entire 2009-2010 election cycle.
One top donor to Mr. Boehner this year has been William Koch, president of Oxbow Corp., which owns a coal-mining operation. Mr. Koch and his wife contributed a total of $70,000 to Mr. Boehner, according to fund-raising records. Two of Mr. Koch's brothers are well-known Republican contributors.
"We are a big supporter of John Boehner. We think he is good for business," said Brad Goldstein, a spokesman for Oxbow, based in West Palm Beach, Fla. "He looks out for business interests, and he wants to create more jobs for America, while this administration has been rather harsh on the industry."
The Journal added that Boehner established a "special fund-raising account" last year so that he could "legally accept donations higher than the normal limits on campaign contributions" from the industry. Boehner's own re-election fund can only receive a maximum $5,000 contributions from supporters per election cycle.
Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette noted that Murray Energy gave nearly $40,000 to Boehner this cycle.
The donor that jumped out at me was Murray Energy, which listed nearly $40,000 in donations to Speaker Boehner this election cycle, according to Open Secrets.org.
Murray Energy and its owner, Bob Murray... , are of course best known for the 2007 disaster that killed six miners and three rescue workers at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah.
There is an ongoing criminal investigation into those deaths and "federal regulators have already levied more than $1.8 million in civil fines for violations that caused the disaster."
Since the President Obama took office, the coal industry has been increasing its campaign contributions. About 75 percent of their campaign contributions have gone to Republicans. The National Mining Association has been backing House Republicans in their efforts to eliminate the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate pollutants and veto water permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.
According to Mother Jones, the Republicans have ambushed the EPA.
Congressional Republicans have mounted an all-out assault on the EPA, pushing a lengthy list of measures to handcuff the agency from exercising its regulatory authority. For good measure, they are also trying to slash the agency's budget by a third.
Republicans killed the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act last year. Such legislation, Democrats said would help prevent deaths such as the 29 miners who died at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in April 2010.
House Republicans have been trying to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and setting regulations for dealing with toxic coal ash left behind after it is burnt in power plants.
When the Republicans moved to gut the Clear Water Act this summer, Mother Jones reported, "the National Mining Association and the West Virginia Coal Association—gave 94 percent more money to House members who voted in favor of the bill than they did to those who voted against it".
With campaign contributions from Big Coal up 2,400 percent, Boehner and the House Republicans are being rewarded by the coal industry. Mother Jones summed up:
All in all, under the current GOP-led House there've been some 125 votes to undermine environmental protection, from cutting funding for the EPA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior, limiting agencies' authority to enforce the Clean Water Act and blocking the US from contributing to the international governing body on climate change.
Quite the record of accomplishment for Speaker Boehner. No wonder big coal is handsomely rewarding him.