Harry Reid is right about coal making people sick, but the Kentucky Senate Race of 2014 is also proving hazardous to my health. The warped priorities in this race highlight everything that Americans have come to hate about politics. We went from maybe discussing something that the federal government did that was positive for over 400,000 people in Kentucky - the ACA and kynect - to a topic (coal production) which will, eventually, end badly for 12,000 Kentuckians; this was all done in a split second as far as time is measured in political terms.
As expected, both McConnell and Grimes did The Freak when it came to the EPA's new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions. McConnell has proposed his "Coal Protection Act." According to the proposal, the federal government "would require the U.S. Labor Department to prove that any restrictions by the Environmental Protection Agency will not eliminate jobs, raise utility bills or reduce electricity reliability."
Furthermore,
Besides certification from the labor secretary, McConnell's bill would also require the following:
The Director of the Congressional Budget Office certifies to the EPA Administrator that the regulation will not result in any loss in gross domestic product of the U.S.
The Administrator of the Energy Information Administration certifies to the EPA Administrator that the regulation will not increase electricity rates.
The Chairperson of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the President of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. certify to the administrator that electricity delivery will remain reliable.
McConnell ads insult to injury on global climate change with this gem:
"The president wants Americans to believe that his national energy tax can somehow heal the planet and regulate the oceans," he said.
"Because the point of this whole exercise is sadly obvious: it’s not really about science or global warming at all, it’s about making privileged elitists—elitists who may not feel the pinch of a higher utility bill or the pain of a lost job—feel like they 'did something.'"
Not to be outdone, Grimes has responded to both the EPA's announcement and McConnell's Coal Protection Act proposal. First up, Grimes will be running
this advertisement:
I had some trouble loading the visual image that went with the ad, so I added the above link so you all could see it. And she is already running this radio ad:
The ad, titled "Mr. President," is part of a multimedia ad campaign Grimes unveiled Monday after the proposed regulations were released. Additionally, the campaign bought full page ads in newspapers in coal-rich eastern and western Kentucky that have a coal miner holding a chunk of coal, with the words, "President Obama and Washington don't get it … Alison Grimes does."
In the radio ad, Grimes tells Obama, "Mr. President, Kentucky has lost one-third of our coal jobs in just the last three years. Now your EPA is targeting Kentucky coal with pie in the sky regulations that are impossible to achieve.
"It's clear you have no idea how this affects Kentucky. Coal supplies 92 percent of our state's electricity. Your new regulations will lead to severe rate increases, shortages of power and the loss of even more coal jobs.
"Kentucky already has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the country. It's bad enough we've lost 18 thousand coal jobs since Mitch McConnell became senator. It's even worse that Senator McConnell says it's not his job to bring jobs to Kentucky. Now you give us this."
Grimes also wants more funding for "clean coal technology" and reminds people that McConnell did not support research funding into this critical area.
What is missing from all of this "debate" about coal production and mining in Kentucky is coal mining is a dying industry in Kentucky. As repeated countless times on this site, there are a variety of economic reasons why coal mining jobs in Appalachia are disappearing. No politician in Kentucky wants to ever acknowledge the obvious reality of the future of coal mining. Instead, we have Kentucky politicians kowtowing to the fossil fuel industry. When it is no longer economically profitable to mine in Kentucky because the mines are too old or every mountaintop is blown up, the coal mine operators will move on to greener pastures. Meanwhile, what about the workers in Eastern Kentucky?
I see no sign that any politician in Kentucky is proposing to find other types of economic development for Appalachia. And Lord knows the region needs some serious ideas about economic development. But is relying on an old industry that is shedding jobs and environmentally costly the way to go for Kentucky?
Contrast all this push back from Grimes on coal production and the EPA with the issue of kynect. The ACA has given over 400,000 people in Kentucky health insurance, most for the first time ever. As a Medicaid recipient, the ACA and kynect has made a REAL difference in my life. Think about it. The big bad government has actually improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky. But Grimes is so terrified of being associated with Obama that she is running away from kynect.
Instead, it appears that I will get to hear about how much both Grimes and McConnell LOVE them some coal and how the federal government costs jobs. How does a Democrat win a debate when she is conceding that the federal government is costing jobs? To those in Eastern Kentucky, Grimes is saying, "McConnell is right that Obama is responsible for your economic woes."
I don't know about you all, but this political campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky has some warped priorities. We have two people running for higher office at a time of critical change in our global environment who are embracing an energy strategy from the 19th and early 20th Century. What's worse is that energy policy will not bring economic growth to Kentucky. Eventually, it leads to an economic dead end for Kentucky workers.
So we have no real proposals for economic development in Kentucky. No discussion about global climate change, except that it is a myth for one of the candidates. And as for an important issue for Kentuckians, healthcare for hundreds of thousands in the state, we have one character that wants to take it away, and the other can't be bothered to talk about it.
I will need more than a Rolaids when this race is done.