Closing out the third night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, newly tapped vice presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on Wednesday took a shot at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s energy policy.
The governor, selected as Republican nominee Donald Trump’s running mate last week, brought up a comment Clinton made while campaigning in Ohio in March. “There’s a lot of Americans out there who feel like Democrat politicians have taken them for granted. It’s union members who don’t want a president who promises to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Pence said during his nomination acceptance speech. “Those miners want an American energy policy and they know that Donald Trump digs coal.”
Pence is correct that Clinton said her energy policy would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” though she never “promised” such an outcome. Pence also did not mention the second part of Clinton’s 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.”
Clinton returned to Ohio two months later, after she had already won the state’s primary, to reiterate her full message. “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 to the coal company executives trying to shirk their responsibilities to their workers and retirees,” she said at the May stop in Ohio.
Under Clinton’s energy plan, more than 500 million solar panels would be installed across the country by 2021, and by 2027 the nation would generate enough clean renewable energy to power every home.
The GOP platform Trump is running under 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.
Thursday is the final day of the GOP convention, with Trump scheduled to accept the nomination this evening.
