Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

It has been more than six years since Barack Obama bluntly stated before the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board that during his administration, “if someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

A few short months later, President Obama took office and thus began a systematic decimation of coal communities and the hard-working men and women who have dedicated their lives to blessing our nation with the manifold benefits from affordable and reliable coal-based electricity.

Unfortunately for the once-prosperous middle class, this is one campaign promise President Obama kept. In June of last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed what is expected to be the most costly regulation in its history. The plan the EPA put forth stipulates a completely unrealistic timeline that poses dire consequences for America’s workers, their families and their communities.

Even more tragic for working families is the acquiescence we have seen from some in the labor community, most recently in comments to the Environmental Protection Agency from the United Steelworkers. Despite the acknowledgment that workers at eight coal-fired power plants will be directly impacted by this regulation, the USW mentioned that “we believe actions to curb U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases are necessary.” While the comments also make some valid points as to problems with the regulation, the USW ultimately puts misplaced faith in EPA to develop a “well-crafted rule” with “job-focused supporting policies.”

Neither is a possibility as EPA’s past behavior gives no hope that things will change in the future. The EPA has crafted an unworkable, overreaching proposal that will endanger the reliability of our electric grid, burden working families with more lost jobs and higher electricity prices and neuter any hope of a manufacturing renaissance in the United States.

The United Steelworkers should stand in opposition to these job-killing policies, or President Obama and the EPA will keep pursuing their radical environmental agenda while America’s working families pay the price.

STATE REP. JEFF PYLE
Chairman
House Coal Caucus
Harrisburg

Mr. Pyle of Ford City is a Republican representing the 60th Legislative District.

Read the article here.