A race for coal
October 31, 2014
By Anthony Pendleton
Coal is one of the biggest issues in the race between Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes. Debates, campaign ads and even hidden-camera videos have contributed to the conversation. Why is coal such a dominant issue, and where does each candidate stand?
Coal is a big topic in the race partly because of President Barack Obama’s perceived opposition to it. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed regulations that call for carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to be cut 30 percent by 2030. The regulations would discourage the burning of coal and effectively prevent the construction of new coal-fired plants with existing technology.
McConnell says that if he is reelected and becomes Senate Majority Leader, “right at the top of my list” will be language in appropriations bills prohibiting the administration from enacting or enforcing the regulations. President Obama threatened to veto such legislation this year, and McConnell has indicated that he is not willing to force another government shutdown on the issue.
Grimes says she supports coal, as well as a “balanced approach” to energy and climate change, which is the target of the regulations, while protecting coal jobs. Her position is focused on those working for the coal industry, rather than the industry itself. In an interview with Hazard’s WYMT-TV, Grimes said miners “need to have somebody in Washington, D.C., that has their back instead of the big coal corporations.” She has criticized McConnell’s lack of support for new health and safety rules for underground mines, which produce most of Kentucky’s coal.
Grimes is backed by the United Mine Workers of America labor union. UMWA Kentucky political director Steve Earle said they decided to support Grimes because “there’s a lot of people supporting coal, but not a lot of people supporting coal miners, and Alison’s going to be a strong voice for coal miners.”
McConnell’s support for coal is focused on the industry as a whole. During the KET debate on Oct. 13, he said, “The job of a United States Senator from Kentucky is to fight for coal jobs.”
McConnell, an outspoken climate change skeptic, typically answers climate change questions by saying “I’m not a scientist.” Pressed on the subject, he said, “Whether or not this set of scientists or that set of scientists is correct is irrelevant.” According to a 2013 survey, 97 percent of scientific studies that took a stance on climate change agree that it is occurring and is caused primarily by humans.
McConnell says that U.S. action alone would have no effect on the global climate change, and he rejects the idea that the U.S. should take the lead so that less developed economies will follow.
Grimes does acknowledge climate change. During the KET debate, she said, “I don’t think you have to be a scientist to recognize the realities of what are happening around us.” She added, “I recognize, unlike Senator McConnell, the realities of global warming,” but added that “we have to rein in the EPA. I think the regulations as they exist now are over-burdensome.”
More than 7,000 coal jobs have been lost in Kentucky since President Obama took office in 2009. McConnell criticizes President Obama, but coal jobs have been eliminated almost every year since the 1980s, according to the Kentucky Energy Database. Since 2009, three major factors have caused this drop-off: Natural gas has become more abundant and thus cheaper than coal for electricity generation; central Appalachian coal reserves are being depleted and are the nation’s most expensive to mine; and EPA regulations have targeted mountaintop mining and coal-fired power plants.
Another reason both candidates support coal is because many Kentucky counties – especially those in the eastern coalfields, where coal has long been the dominant industry – have a strong connection to it. Although coal only makes up about 1 percent of Kentucky’s economy, about 93 percent of the state’s electricity comes from coal, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
