Aug. 31, 2010
The 2010 U.S. Senate Race: Is the Coal Industry Perplexed by Manchin and Obama?
By Huntingtonnews.net Staff
How is it possible that Joe Manchin, long the darling of the West Virginia coal industry, is now fighting for significant donations from that industry--one that he had been involved with for years as a coal broker in Marion County?
Answer: Barack Obama.
It all began when then candidate Obama said during a 2008 interview for a
San Francisco media outlet that his approach to coal-fired power
plants would lead to their extinction. Alarm bells went off across
coal country in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Most previous Democratic Presidential candidates, even those with
environmentalist leanings, had talked positively about coal's future
via clean coal technology and other new developments. Obama's approach
was something new--and frightening to coal industry leaders.
So when Governor Joe Manchin backed up Senator Obama in the last days of the 2008 campaign on the need for a carbon tax on coal users, here again was something new: a seemingly pro-coal West Virginia Governor appearing to capitulate to a more liberal attitude towards coal.
"That was a watershed moment," said Jack Ellis, a political consultant based out of Putnam County. "When you have Governor Manchin giving that degree of political cover to a new Democratic Presidential nominee, even to the point of marginalizing one of his state's leading industries, that was something of a shock to many."
While mechanization radically reduced the number of coal miners in West Virginia beginning in the late 1950s, coal producers still directly employ 30,000 people as miners, mine contractors, and coal preparation plant employees.
In Southern West Virginia, coal companies help sustain enough ancillary jobs in the region that Republican Congressional candidate Spike Maynard has based almost his entire candidacy around the theme of saving the coal industry from the Obama Administration's perceived bias against fossil fuels like coal.
This year, Big Coal has not given as much to Manchin's campaign as they
have in previous years to top Democratic candidates.
"Manchin raised a total of about half a million dollars in his primary effort," said Ellis. "That's a little underwhelming for an incumbent Governor. In previous years, the Democratic nominee would have raised that much alone from the West Virginia coal industry. There's a chill in the air between Manchin and his old buddies, due to his support for Obama's carbon tax. Plus, Obama's EPA has been really tight with those new coal permits, which has led to layoffs--never a good thing in a recession."
But can all these clouds in the relationship between Manchin and coal really hurt the Governor in this year's U.S. Senate special election?
"That depends," said Ellis. "I suppose Manchin can try to disavow his prior remarks, but they're on the record. The best thing John Raese could say to his friends in the coal industry is to state a powerful an obvious fact. While Manchin may not finally cast a vote against the West Virginia coal industry in the U.S. Senate, he certainly could vote to get anti-coal bills out of committee. In fact, as a Democrat, he'd be expected to do so. As a Republican, Raese would have no such issues."
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The 2010 U.S. Senate Race: Is the Coal Industry Perplexed by Manchin and Obama?
By Huntingtonnews.net Staff
How is it possible that Joe Manchin, long the darling of the West Virginia coal industry, is now fighting for significant donations from that industry--one that he had been involved with for years as a coal broker in Marion County?
Answer: Barack Obama.
It all began when then candidate Obama said during a 2008 interview for a
San Francisco media outlet that his approach to coal-fired power
plants would lead to their extinction. Alarm bells went off across
coal country in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Most previous Democratic Presidential candidates, even those with
environmentalist leanings, had talked positively about coal's future
via clean coal technology and other new developments. Obama's approach
was something new--and frightening to coal industry leaders.
So when Governor Joe Manchin backed up Senator Obama in the last days of the 2008 campaign on the need for a carbon tax on coal users, here again was something new: a seemingly pro-coal West Virginia Governor appearing to capitulate to a more liberal attitude towards coal.
"That was a watershed moment," said Jack Ellis, a political consultant based out of Putnam County. "When you have Governor Manchin giving that degree of political cover to a new Democratic Presidential nominee, even to the point of marginalizing one of his state's leading industries, that was something of a shock to many."
While mechanization radically reduced the number of coal miners in West Virginia beginning in the late 1950s, coal producers still directly employ 30,000 people as miners, mine contractors, and coal preparation plant employees.
In Southern West Virginia, coal companies help sustain enough ancillary jobs in the region that Republican Congressional candidate Spike Maynard has based almost his entire candidacy around the theme of saving the coal industry from the Obama Administration's perceived bias against fossil fuels like coal.
This year, Big Coal has not given as much to Manchin's campaign as they
have in previous years to top Democratic candidates.
"Manchin raised a total of about half a million dollars in his primary effort," said Ellis. "That's a little underwhelming for an incumbent Governor. In previous years, the Democratic nominee would have raised that much alone from the West Virginia coal industry. There's a chill in the air between Manchin and his old buddies, due to his support for Obama's carbon tax. Plus, Obama's EPA has been really tight with those new coal permits, which has led to layoffs--never a good thing in a recession."
But can all these clouds in the relationship between Manchin and coal really hurt the Governor in this year's U.S. Senate special election?
"That depends," said Ellis. "I suppose Manchin can try to disavow his prior remarks, but they're on the record. The best thing John Raese could say to his friends in the coal industry is to state a powerful an obvious fact. While Manchin may not finally cast a vote against the West Virginia coal industry in the U.S. Senate, he certainly could vote to get anti-coal bills out of committee. In fact, as a Democrat, he'd be expected to do so. As a Republican, Raese would have no such issues."
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