Electing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton president will inflict upon the coal industry at least four more years of heavy regulation based on left-wing policies, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) said Tuesday evening during a headline speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “The only thing we can trust Hillary to do is to double down on the same failed Obama policies that are hurting Americans,” Capito said. “We know she will double down on an economic agenda that’s led to the lowest workforce participation in decades. We know that she will double down on the war on coal.”
Capito has been a vocal opponent of the current administration’s regulation of the coal industry, including finalization of the Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. Under the regulation, states are required to submit action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals. Implementation of the regulation, though, is frozen under a Supreme Court stay while a lawsuit against the plan moves through the federal court system. A final ruling is unlikely before late 2017 at the earliest.
Clinton is running on a Democratic Platform committed to expanding the Clean Power Plan and transitioning quickly to low- and no-carbon energy sources, veering off from the “all-of-the-above” energy strategy pursued by President Barack Obama. “We are committed to getting 50 percent of our electricity from clean energy sources within a decade, with half a billion solar panels installed within four years and enough renewable energy to power every home in the country,” the platform says, drawing heavily from Clinton’s campaign promises.
The GOP platform, in contrast, throws its support behind coal, which it says is “an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.” The platform boasts party support for all fuel sources, but says they should be supported by the market without subsidies.
Opponents of the Clean Power Plan argue that it will increase electricity prices, threaten the reliability of the grid, and destroy the coal industry. “[Obama] has never realized that when you bankrupt a coal company you deprive communities of their livelihood. His recklessness has cost more than 60,000 coal workers their jobs since 2001. That’s 60,000 families that are now without work, without a paycheck, and without many options,” Capito said.
Clinton is just as out of touch with coal communities and the coal industry, Capito said, latching onto the former senator and secretary of state’s comment in Ohio in March that her proposed energy plan would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
“She wants to put thousands more Americans out of work. She has promised to devastate communities and families across coal country. When I think about Hillary Clinton’s pursuit of an anti-coal agenda, you know what I think about? I think about that miner who wakes up at dawn every day to go to a 10-hour shift,” Capito said. “I weep for the fabric of my state.”
Trying to recover from her March comment, Clinton noted that the rest of her message – “We’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories.” – was lost in much of the backlash. In May, she returned to Ohio to plead her case again.
“At a time when our energy sector is changing rapidly, we need to invest in coal communities. We need to figure out how to bring new jobs and industries to them, and we need to stand up the coal company executives trying to shirk their responsibilities to their workers and retirees,” Clinton said at a campaign stop.
Capito is not convinced, however, suggesting that coal miners want coal jobs. “These men and women take pride in their highly skilled and good-paying jobs, that provide for their families and support their communities. They work tirelessly to power America,” she said.
Donald Trump, who on Tuesday officially became the GOP nominee for president, “understands how to create jobs and grow the economy,” Capito said, suggesting he would be better for the coal industry than Clinton.
