Sunday, Aug. 15, 2004 5:17 p.m. EDT
Enviro Kerry May Lose Coal States
John Kerry's enthusiasms for job-destroying environmental regulations could cost him the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia where coal mining is a major industry.
Already Kerry is attempting to reposition himself on these issues. Kerry now claims that he disagrees with Al Gore's anti-coal mining policies such as his support of the Kyoto Treaty, which would have devastated both the industry and the U.S. economy.
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Though kerry's voting record and public pronouncements placed him solidy in the Gore camp, Kerry has sought to portray himself as a friend and supporter of coal miners, pledging to protect their jobs and health and even moderating his position on clean air.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kerry has wooed the miners unions and spent a lot of time in West Virginia which Bush won in 2000, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state in 72 years. The Times reported that the Massachusetts senator went to West Virginia the night he clinched the nomination and has been back four times since.
Bush, who the Times recalls visited West Virginia early and often in the 2000 campaign, and has returned 11 times as president, has eased regulations for extracting coal from Appalachia's mountaintops and made it easier to modify or renovate older coal-fired power plants without installing expensive pollution controls.
Terry Holt, Bush's campaign spokesman, denied that Kerry was a better friend to coal than Gore, citing his vote last year for a bill designed to combat global warming. The bill, which failed to pass the Senate, would have had "a significant negative impact on the coal industry," according to the Energy Department.
The Times noted that Kerry has long advocated stringent pollution controls that are not popular with the coal industry. On the campaign trail, he insists that the nation does not have to choose between coal and clean air, claiming that by doubling the nation's investment in clean coal technology to $10 billion over 10 years coal can burn more cleanly. But President Bush has asked for $310 million to $470 million a year to achieve the same goal.
Kerry told listeners during a speech two weeks ago in Wheeling, W.Va., that by learning to burn coal more cleanly, the nation could help reduce its dependence on foreign oil.
"I want a nation that depends on its own ingenuity, not the Saudi royal family," Kerry said.
"You've got coal to be dug right here - it can be mined. But we've got to make sure we do it clean."
As for the Kyoto Accord Kerry has flip-flopped, going from his previous support of the treaty which threatens to destroy the coal mining industry to claiming it is now too late for the United States to achieve the treaty's aggressive targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But he continues to advocate to bringing the United States back to the negotiating table on the treaty, which was signed by most other developed nations but has been unable to win approval of the Senate.
Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Assn., told the Times she was suspicious of Kerry's conversion to coal. Even though Kerry has accepted the necessity of generating electricity from coal, she said "... one has to wonder, if West Virginia and Ohio were not swing states, if there'd be as much interest in this by his campaign."
Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Assn., criticized Kerry's 1999 vote against a measure sponsored by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) to overturn a federal judge's ruling that mountaintop mining violated federal environmental laws.
According to the Times, mountaintop mining - removing the top of mountains to get at seams of coal - has become the mainstay of Appalachian mining. The president's support of the process helped him capture West Virginia in 2000, and his administration has since rewritten regulations to protect it.
Carey said he was determined not to let Kerry "backpedal" on votes such as this one.
"My goal . is to make sure [miners] are not duped by campaign reinvention," Carey told the Times "I'm going to make it a top priority to get this message into the hands of every coal miner in Ohio."
URL:http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/8/15/172052.shtml |
