Coal? Under Obama, You Can Forget It

Coal supplies around 57% of America’s electricity. This is no surprise, since the U.S. has the world’s largest coal deposits. Coal is a wonderful source of energy, but it has fallen into disfavor with the Democratic party because burning it emits CO2. Liberals are committed to the myth that increasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will destroy the planet, not to mention the myth that if we stop burning fossil fuels, other countries will too. In 2008, Barack Obama made his distaste for coal explicit, saying that under his administration, if you want to build a coal-fired power plant you can, only you will go broke.

Since then, the administration has tried to be a little more subtle, forcing coal plants to shut down while trying to minimize publicity to avoid blowback from energy consumers (i.e., everyone) and communities that depend on coal, of which there are many. But recently a top Obama administration official, EPA Region 1 Administrator Curt Spalding, let the cat out of the bag in a speech at Yale. He praised EPA head Lisa Jackson for her “very powerful message” that “if you want to build a coal plant you got a big problem.” In effect, he said, the most recent EPA regulations will make it impossible to construct a coal-fired power plant. Which, he acknowledged, will make life tough for those who live in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states:

The Obama administration purports to be puzzled as to why it is presiding over such a lousy economy. Maybe if it stopped making war on American business and American consumers, it would help.

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