Being ‘frank’
Obama coal plan disaster still can be avoided with effort
POSTED: February 11, 2010 Save | Print | Email | Read comments | Post a comment
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We don't know whether Gov. Joe Manchin, in discussing a meeting with President Barack Obama, used the word "frank" as it so often is employed in diplomacy. After he and several other governors met to discuss energy policy with Obama, Manchin said the conversation was "direct, frank, right from everyone's heart. I think (Obama) knows very well where (coal state governors) are coming from."
When diplomats use the word "frank," it often is code for a discussion in which the parties are nowhere near agreement. That is the case with Obama and coal. Despite what he says, the president continues to act in ways that, if continued, will devastate the coal industry and states like ours that depend on it.
More worrisome for tens of millions of Americans who do not live in coal-producing states is the effect Obama's policies will have on them. If measures such as "cap and trade" are implemented, many families will see their utility bills go up by thousands of dollars a year.Obama insists that he does not want to write off coal as a fuel used widely in the United States. But as so often is the case in Washington, his policies do not agree with his public pronouncements. The "cap and trade" bill, an announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency that it may take dramatic action on its own, and EPA behavior involving mining permits are examples of anti-coal policy.
For too long, some coal-state members of Congress accepted Obama's promises without noticing the 800-pound gorilla in the room - administration policies. There is evidence that may change.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., seems to have become a convert. Last week he signaled strongly that promises from the White House are not enough. During a Senate hearing on Obama's proposal for the 2001 budget, Rockefeller lashed out.
According to one published report, Rockefeller made it clear "he isn't sure he trusts the president's commitments to coal. ..." Referring to Obama's pledges to support coal, the senator complained that, "He says it in his speeches, but he doesn't say it in (his budget proposal). He doesn't say it in the actions of (EPA Administrator) Lisa Jackson. And he doesn't say it in the minds of my own people. And he's beginning to not be believable to me."Precisely. In an interview published in the New York Times, Rockefeller said it is not just energy spending policy that worries him. "It's not a question of money, it's a question of the overall approach. I just wonder whether they really do understand the importance of coal, the fact the nation can't exist without it," he explained.
As Rockefeller stressed, the issue is a nonpartisan one in which Obama may find himself contending against many Democrats, as well as Republican lawmakers. "There's some coal-state senators like myself that have to be satisfied; forget all the Republicans who vote 'no' on everything," he told the Times reporter.
If Obama gets away with saying one thing and doing another in regard to coal, our state will be devastated. And again, tens of millions of other Americans, many in states where not a ton of coal is mined, will pay dearly. The nation's economy as a whole will suffer.
But if other members of Congress join Rockefeller in demanding that Obama adopt a more rational philosophy, the looming disaster can be prevented. That needs to happen soon and in dramatic fashion - and we urge West Virginia's congressional delegation in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to be leaders in demanding that the president match his policies to his promises.
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Get a clue you moron democrats, ZERO was never believable from Day 1!
Video at site:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/02/12/dem_sen_rockefeller_on_obama_hes_beginning_to_be_not_believable_to_me.html
