US Coal Industry Giving Record Amounts for Election

The coal industry, facing a host of new health and safety regulations, is spending millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations this year

to influence the makeup of the next Congress in hopes of derailing what one industry official called an Obama administration “regulatory jihad.”

Can you believe these guys ???

Political spending by the coal industry is on track to exceed that of the 2008 cycle, when the presidency was at stake

The coal industry, facing a host of new health and safety regulations, is spending millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations this year

to influence the makeup of the next Congress in hopes of derailing what one industry official called an Obama administration “regulatory jihad.”

Can you believe these guys ???

Political spending by the coal industry is on track to exceed that of the 2008 cycle, when the presidency was at stake

and Congress appeared determined to move forward with a national energy policy designed to address climate change

by cutting back on the use of coal and petroleum.

Over the last two years, the coal industry, along with its allies in oil and gas, electric utilities, manufacturing and agriculture,

effectively killed any prospects for climate change legislation in the near future.

But after two major coal industry accidents, a huge spill of toxic ash in 2008

and a West Virginia mine disaster in April that killed 29 workers,

the industry is bracing for new federal action that it fears will curtail operations and drive up costs.

Industry officials believe they face a possible range of new federal regulations on

• greenhouse gas emissions,

• mountaintop removal mining,

• air pollution,

• coal ash disposal and

• mine safety.

The industry already enjoys some bipartisan support for killing or moderating these new rules

but it is looking to broaden its margins in the House and Senate

to try to ensure more favorable treatment by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration and other federal regulatory bodies.

Coal industry spending on campaigns and lobbying is substantial and growing,

although it is dwarfed by the far better-financed oil and gas, electric utility, financial services and health care lobbies.

Among the largest recipients of coal money are Republican and Democratic members who have sponsored or voted for measures to block new E.P.A. regulations

on climate cahnge pollution from the burning of coal and oil and who are most likely to support efforts to block other new rules.

These members include Representatives Roy Blunt of Missouri and Joe L. Barton of Texas, both Republicans, and Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia and Rick Boucher of Virginia, both Democrats.

Each had received more than $25,000 in contributions as of early October,

according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign spending.

Two Senate candidates, Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Gov. Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, have also received sizable industry donations.

And it’s precisely this “bi-partisan” nature of corporate donations that indicates the level of corruption of the US political system –

with its attendant negative effects on the economic system, as we have pointed out.

The political action committee of Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is in line to become speaker if Republicans capture the House,

has received more than $300,000 from mining interests, most of it from coal companies.

The industry is counting on Mr. Boehner to reverse the current Democratic leadership’s refusal to allow a vote on the measure blocking E.P.A. carbon regulation.

As of the beginning of October, coal mining companies had collectively contributed nearly $3 million to federal candidates,

with three-quarters of the money going to Republicans, according to the campaign finance group.

The companies spent about $3.5 million to influence the 2008 elections and it appeared likely that they would surpass that figure this year.

In addition, the industry has spent more than $24 million on lobbying since the beginning of 2009, nearly as much as it spent in 2007-8.

Coal companies, in partnership with utilities and manufacturers under the banner of the so-called American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity [ barf ] ,

have spent more than $15 million on advertisements extolling the virtues of coal

and seeking support for federal money for research into cleaner methods of burning it.

The industry’s main Washington lobby, the National Mining Association, is likewise on pace to set records for political spending this year.

It sees the stakes as enormous and is hoping that the Republican leadership will rein in federal regulators through pre-emptive legislation or funding cuts.

The E.P.A. says it is not at war with coal mining companies or coal-burning utilities

but is carrying out its legal mandate to protect public health and the environment.

“E.P.A. does not have a problem with coal, or any other industry,” which is, fortunately or not, probably true,

said Brendan Gilfillan, a senior agency spokesman in this article from the New York Times.

“E.P.A. is committed to doing its job, which is to minimize the pollution that might come from these industries.

“E.P.A.’s actions are firmly grounded in both the best available science and the law —

in fact, in many cases E.P.A. is operating under legal deadlines after rules from the previous administration were thrown out by the courts.”