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Union Workers Protest Obama's EPA Regs: 'Don’t Even Mention His Name'

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Photo Credit: APThe United Mine Workers of America held a rally Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to protest Environmental Protection Agency regulations that they claim would destroy the nation’s coal industry and coal-related jobs while doing nothing to address climate change.

On Tuesday, current and retired workers convened at Freedom Plaza, then marched to EPA offices to protest EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan, part of President Obama’s larger climate-change agenda, which aims to cut carbon pollution by imposing state-by-state emissions standards and fines for failure to meet those standards.

CNSNews.com asked protesters, “If you could tell President Obama anything about these regulations today, what would you say?”

“Don’t even mention his name,” one protester said. “He’s the one stirring up a lot of the problems we’re having now with these coal-fired plants.”

“I wish [Obama] could walk a day in our shoes, let him come down to the mines and talk to us but I wish he could get down on our level and see what it’s doing to the coal industry, cause it’s sure – he and the EPA industry are sure ruining it,” said another protester.

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Coal Industry Dealt Another Setback as Oregon Blocks Export Plan – Will Feds Help?

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Photo Credit: MorrowPacific / Port of Morrow.US Army Corp of Engineers

Photo Credit: MorrowPacific / Port of Morrow.US Army Corp of Engineers

The coal industry has been dealt another blow after a state agency in Oregon denied a key permit for a controversial terminal, marking the latest salvo in an escalating fight between coal exporters and fossil-fuel loathing environmentalists on the West Coast.

The permit, for the Coyote Island Terminal in Oregon, was denied on Aug. 18 by the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL). Though opponents rejoiced, the company building the dock, which would be used to transport tons of coal down the Columbia River, cited it as a potential economic boon – and questioned whether politics were at play in the permit rejection.

The terminal would serve as the starting point in a shipping operation that would eventually stage and ship upwards of 8 metric tons of coal over land and river, and then onto buyers in Asia.

After the rejection by the state, the company is holding out hope that the feds will side with them as part of a separate review.

“We’re disappointed, but it’s not the end,” said Liz Fuller, spokeswoman for the Australia-based Ambre Energy, which wants to build the terminal as part of its $242 million Morrow Pacific project.

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Coal Country Begs Obama for Mercy as Hundreds of Coal Plants Ready for Closing

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Coal industry lobbyists and politicians have been urging the Obama administration to ease up on its regulatory agenda and craft carbon dioxide emission rules that would allow the coal industry to survive.

All the while, reports indicate that hundreds of coal plants are slated to be shut down in the coming years.

The unveiling of President Obama’s plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants earlier this summer stoked the fears of coal supporters who have already been hit hard by stricter environmental regulations.

However, the industry is not going down without a fight.

Coal lobbyists met with White House officials at the end of July, the Hill newspaper reports, to ask the administration to consider a plan that would allow new coal plants to be built.

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Win or Lose, Obama’s Regulators Scrambling to Enact $700 Billion Hit on US Economy

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photo credit: c_nilsenPresident Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has devoted an unprecedented number of bureaucrats to finalizing new anti-coal regulations that are set to be released at the end of November, according to a source inside the EPA.

More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation. The independent and non-partisan Manhattan Institute estimates that the EPA’s greenhouse gas coal regulation will cost the U.S. economy $700 billion.

The rush is a major sign of panic by environmentalists inside the Obama administration. If Obama wins, the EPA would have another four full years to implement their anti-fossil fuel agenda. But if Romney wins, regulators will have a very narrow window to enact a select few costly regulations that would then be very hard for a President Romney to undo.

Read more from this story HERE.