Obama using oil spill to impose an energy tax

would harm ky. businesses, families

By Mitch McConnell

At issue | July 7 Herald-Leader editorial, “Spill’s clarity: Put a price on carbon”

To help me best represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, I reach out to people across the state to learn what they’re thinking. The more Kentuckians I can talk to, the better.

But if you asked which Kentuckians I value hearing from more than any other, the answer might surprise you: It’s the Herald-Leader’s editorial board. Whenever this paper tries to take me to task in print, I know I am on the right track. The editorials swim upstream against the tide of Kentucky opinion more than any others.

The July 7 editorial hits precisely the wrong note once again. The tragedy of the gulf oil spill demands that our government’s top priority must be stopping the leak and cleaning up the damage it has caused.

But this paper, along with President Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats who control Washington, see it as a chance to jam through a new national energy tax that has been at the top of liberals’ wish list for years — long before the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank.

Most Americans know that this national energy tax — sometimes called “cap and trade” — will hit them every time they fill up their car or flip a switch to turn on a light bulb.

And because Kentucky is rich in coal and other natural resources, most Kentuckians understand that a national energy tax will hit our state much worse than most.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Take it from Kentuckians in every corner of the state, urban and rural, Republican and Democrat, those directly impacted and those who would feel it indirectly as well: A national energy tax would hurt their livelihoods, their businesses and their families.

The barge-shipping industry in Kentucky, for instance, employs thousands of people in our state. Much of the freight those barges carry is coal, and a tax on coal would cost the industry jobs. And since the lost cargo cannot be easily replaced, the jobs will not be replaced either.

Kentucky is home to many automobile manufacturing plants, which employ thousands of people.

More companies in Kentucky exist that serve and are reliant on the automobile industry. The current recession has already hit auto companies hard; many who work at these energy-intensive businesses fear how much a spike in energy prices will add to their troubles.

I’ve heard from farmers who had nothing to do with the oil spill, but would face increased fertilizer and fuel costs to keep their farms running. To remain competitive in a global marketplace, they can’t raise prices, and would be forced to absorb the full force of the tax and cut jobs.

Many electric co-op consumers across the state live on fixed incomes. They fear an increase in their utility bills — an increase that could cost some of them their homes.

And every one of us will have to pay more whenever we use energy, or buy something that used energy to manufacture it, sell it or ship it.

The common thread through all of these concerns is frustration and anger. People are frustrated that Washington thinks it knows best — knows best about your family’s health care, owning American automobile companies, or running the banking industry.

But Washington can’t fulfill its most important job to protect this country and our resources and stop this oil spill.

At the same time, people are angry that Obama and the Democrats in Congress are using this catastrophe to push through totally unrelated bad policy. Obama advocated a national energy tax even before he was elected, and has admitted that “under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

The reasons why a national energy tax is a bad idea have not changed. Kentuckians have rejected this liberal agenda before, and they reject it today.

‘Coal is a great resource’ Association head warns of cap-and-trade costs-

Courier Press – June 10, 2010 Having competitively priced electricity helps Kentucky attract companies and jobs, and that could be threatened by legislation to address climate change, the president of the Kentucky Coal Association said here Thursday.

 Bill Bissett also challenged “the debatable science” of global warming, and said the proposal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plant through a method called cap-and-trade would be “completely overreacting.”

 “When someone talks about wind power or cap-and-trade (to reduce carbon emissions when burning coal), ask who’s going to pay for it,” Bissett told a Henderson Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting audience.

 “Where’s the money going to come from?” he asked.

 “Will it be your tax money or your electric bill?” Bissett continued.

 “If it’s not answered,” he said, “it’s coming from you.”

 As of February, Kentucky enjoyed the sixth-lowest residential electric rates in the country (averaging 7.96 cents per kilowatt-hour) and the seventh-lowest industrial rate (averaging 4.75 cents per Kwh), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

 “We’ve got inexpensive electricity because of coal,” which Bissett said generates 92 percent of power in Kentucky.

 “That’s what brings jobs here,” he said.

 Last year, coal accounted for 45 percent of power generation, followed by natural gas (23 percent), nuclear (20 percent), hydroelectricity (7 percent) and renewables such as wind and solar power (3.6 percent), according to the EIA.

 “Coal is a great resource, not only for Kentucky but the nation,” Bissett said. “We need to go in every direction” for finding new sources of generation, “but coal provides that baseline when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.”

 Coal also is an economic engine, providing jobs for 17,000 Kentucky miners and 68,000 people overall, including those in coal service industries ranging from trucking and railroads to concrete companies and engineering firms.

 Meanwhile, Bissett noted that while the eastern Kentucky coal field is better known and accounts for 75 percent of the state’s coal production, the western Kentucky coal field “is very important and in many ways our growth area. There seems to be a bit of decline in eastern Kentucky and an uptick in western Kentucky.”

 Kentucky mines produced 115 million tons of coal in 2009, down from the peak of 179 million tons in 1990. But the state still ranks third in the country in production, behind Wyoming and West Virginia.

 Across Kentucky there are 279 underground mines, 273 surface mines and 14 active mountaintop removal operations, according to Bissett. Only one of those mines — Patriot Coal’s Highland Mine near the Henderson-Union county line — has workers represented by the United Mine Workers of America, he said.

 Meanwhile, Bissett said the Friends of Coal license plate campaign has resulted in 24,000 plates being sold so far.

 “I love driving around Lexington and seeing cars with those plates,” he said. “It gives people (who oppose coal) ulcers.”

“We do have our opposition,” ranging from environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club to President Obama “that I think is often well-intentioned but misinformed.”

 “Our chamber is an ally for all of you coal businesses,” chamber President Brad Schneider told the several coal company representatives and those from companies that service the coal industry who attended the chamber breakfast.

 “We are a friend to you,” Schneider said. “We know you are important to this community. You provide millions (of dollars) in salaries, and thousands of jobs are dependent on the coal industry.”