Jan 03, 2014
Eastern Kentucky coal mine fire. Public domain
While key GOP members and deep-pocketed special interest groups initiate renewed attacks on Obamacare, 2014 midterm elections are also shaping up to be critical for the success or failure of President Barack Obama’s climate plan.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is facing a precarious re-election against Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.
The embattled McConnell, who has struggled in popularity in his own party and the polls, has already signaled his plan of attack on Grimes, which is to connect her with another Republican-fabricated war; this one dubbed the “war on coal,” which accuses Obama of using the Environmental Protection Agency to cripple the use of coal, threatening American jobs.
“Across Kentucky, thousands of coal jobs are disappearing. Obama’s war on coal is hurting whole families and communities. But Obama says he needs more allies in Congress to finish forcing his liberal agenda on our country. That’s why here in Kentucky Obama’s supporting Alison Grimes,” says McConnell’s super-PAC ad.
However, according to a Friday report in The Hill, the EPA is simply paving the way for new coal-powered plants to operate with carbon-capture technology to prevent C02 emissions from polluting the air, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CSS).
Nonetheless, conservative politicians and industry business groups complain the technology is too costly, without any regard to the price future generations will pay for pumping unfettered tons of dirty carbon into the environment.
“EPA expects that this amendment will substantially reduce the uncertainty associated with identifying these CO2 streams under RCRA subtitle C, and will also facilitate the deployment of (geologic sequestration) by providing additional regulatory certainty,” the 58-page rule states.