Thread: The Obama Administration’s Assault on Coal Continues

The Obama Administration’s Assault on Coal Continues

The Common Constitutionalist April 25, 2014

As reported recently at Liberty Alliance, Obama appears to be delivering on yet another campaign promise. The ruination of the entire US economy? No, that's not it… yet. It's a promise that "electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket."

According to the Liberty Alliance report, the average kilowatt hour jumped to 13.5 cents, a record high in March 2014 and if trends continue, the rate will rise further in the coming months. Like gas prices – welcome to the new normal.

Completely unrelated (I'm sure) is a report from ClimateProgress, the tree hugging division of radical ThinkProgress, who gleefully reported that the White House approved new coal dust rules aimed at dropping the rate of black lung disease.

On the surface, it sounds like a great idea, but one has to stop and think about this administration's real motives. Are they really concerned with minor safety or is it just another way to continue to slow and stop the production of coal – which we know Obama and his green weenie minions hate. I'd bet on the latter.

In 1970, the coal dust exposure standard was set at 3 mg per cubic meter. It was decreased to 2 mg in 1973 where it remained.

The new regulation will drop the rate to 1 mg per cubic meter. That's awesome! Once again the feds are looking out for the little guy. Maybe… maybe not. Production will be drastically slowed to meet the new rigid standard, but I'm sure that thought never entered the regulators minds. Right!

In 2011, a study was done and published in occupational and environmental medicine, looking at black lung, the relationship of coal dust and regulations implemented by MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration). The study concluded that increases in black lung could not be explained by dust exposure alone.

Okay, but if it's for the miners' health, what's wrong with lowering the rate anyway?

Well, the MSHA issues what are called POVs (Patterns of Violation) to mines. When the MSHA has determined that a mine has too many violations, it can come in and shut down part or the entire mine for a time, thus halting production of the evil rock.

The new rule allows the MSHA to presume a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach. The new regulation also removes the provision that the MSHA issue a warning to mines prior to issuing a POV, so the mine operators can't fix anything until it's too late and the mine is shut down.
It has also issued no violation guidelines, so the mine operators don't know where they stand – again until the POV is issued and they are forced to halt production.

If this were a government that could be trusted to do the right thing for its people, I wouldn't immediately question their science or motivation. But they're not trustworthy and we know what their motivation is – to collapse the coal industry.

I wouldn't wish black lung disease on anyone. It's horrible, but I don't trust this radical administration to fix anything or even care about the health of the miners.

They simply wish to destroy the coal mining industry, by any means necessary.
Attribution: Heritage.org
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