California Conservative

Sen. Obama’s statements on the coal industry are getting incredible amounts of attention. Salena Zito’s Forty-Fourth Estate blog has posted this statement from Mike Carey:

Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association issued the following statement in response to Obama’s remarks about the nation’s coal industry:

“Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America’s coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.

These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like ‘I haven’t been some coal booster’ and ‘if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them’ are extraordinarily misguided.

It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.

Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short-sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation’s long-term energy security, a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty.

Few policy areas are more important to our economic future than energy issues. As voters head to the polls tomorrow, it is essential they remember that access to reliable, affordable, domestic energy supplies is essential to economic growth and stability.”

Mr. Carey’s statement wipes away one of the Obama campaign’s first spin tactics. Team Barry said that it’s suspicious that this news is just surfacing days before the election. Clear-thinking people couldn’t care less about the circumstances of the information’s release. They care that Sen. Obama’s coal policy is a disaster waiting to happen.

Here’s the paragraph that’s likely to hurt Sen. Obama’s campaign the most:

But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

This is a warning siren to people living in northern tier states who already are pinched with high energy prices, inflation and rising unemployment. People in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will notice. Ditto with Colorado. People living in coal mining cities will wonder how this will affect their economies. If coal industries are severely hampered, the first that’ll happen is that they’ll lay off employees, thereby deepening the impending recession.

This policy, if implemented, will have a ripple effect on our national and local ecnomies. City governments will pay more for heating and electric at a time when state government revenues are shrinking. That’s significant because state government will likely cut LGA payments to cities. School districts will be similarly affected, as will small businesses and homeowners.

In other words, this information affects almost everybody.

I suspect that the Obama campaign is retreating from Obama’s January statements. I’m betting that they’re saying that his statements are either (a) being taken out of context or (b) not Sen. Obama’s current position on coal-based energy. If they’re saying that he didn’t really mean his SF comments, that begs the question of whether people can take anything Sen. Obama says seriously.

It’s impossible to take Sen. Obama’s statements out of context. They provide their own context. It’s quite possible, though, to not trust anything that Sen. Obama says. Like Mr. Carey says, Sen. Obama has proven that he’ll say anything to anyone to get votes.

That isn’t the type of change I can support. Instead, it’s the type of change that I’ll reject without giving it a second thought.

Technorati Tags: Mike Carey, Ohio Coal Association, Coal, Economy, Unemployment, Heating Bills, Obama, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Energy, McCain, Obama, San Francisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.