Obama criticizes Romney’s record on coal
President Barack Obama’s campaign is airing a radio commercial, starting today, in rural counties along the Ohio River, including Columbiana County, criticizing Republican Mitt Romney’s record on coal.
The commercial is the first ad by the Democratic president’s campaign against Romney on coal, an important issue in the state. About 85 percent of the state’s energy comes from coal.
Obama has come under scrutiny for opposing existing “dirty-coal” plants.
The commercial states that with Obama as president, Ohio coal jobs have increased by 10 percent and Ohio coal production increased seven percent. Also, Obama has invested $5 billion in federal funds to create the next generation of coal-fired power plants, the ad states.
The commercial includes Romney’s statement in 2003, just before he became governor of Massachusetts, that a coal-fired plant in Salem Harbor in that state needed to be closed because “that plant kills people.”
Romney’s campaign has said he was specifically referring to that plant, one of the oldest in the state that was not in compliance with state environmental laws, and not the entire coal industry.
Jessica Kershaw, an Obama spokeswoman, said today: “When it helps Mr. Romney politically to be an environmentalist when running for governor of Massachusetts, he declared coal-power plans kill people and enforced strict regulations without compromise. His hard-line stance that [eliminated] local jobs at the time echoes the years he spent killing and outsourcing jobs as a Bain executive.”
Romney told The Vindicator in June that Obama is looking to end the use of coal for energy, and that coal regulations have “become more and more labyrinthian, more difficult for coal to be mined and almost impossible to be used.”
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Vindicator or vindy.com
Comments
Talk about calling the kettle black. No pun intended. Next Obama will be saying he's going to repeal Obama-care.
Knightcap....I don't understand your comment. As the article states, romney lied about Obama in regards to coal, Obama calls BS and provides data to prove romney lied and you post a comment that has no point.
Thanks for contributing.
Why would Obama repeal Romney/Obama care?
Obama is putting money toward coal and Willard wants to shut it down. I guess it is just one more of Willard's " I didin't mean what I said"
I'm sure the workers at the Ohio coal-fired power plants In Cleveland, Ashtabula, Oregon and Eastlake will appreciate Obama's "support" when they are out of work on September 1. They are closing due to EPA "regulations" that Congress rejected, but Obama said to impose nonetheless.
@cambridge
I wish I could believe that Obama is pro coal. He's not. He is more into green energy (solar,wind,battery), not fossil fuels. Looking for new energy is fine but we are still reliant on fossil fuels. Getting back to coal, there was just a coal mine that shut down and another one going to happen real soon. Thousands more out of work. These are Obama's words " If somebody wants to open a coal mine they can, but it will bankrupt you because of the huge penalties for the greenhouse gasses". As for Romney, we need someone to turn the deficit around, expand the economy, get unemployment below 6% and get those damn gas prices down. Obama can't do it. Regroup for 2016 and get a better all around candidate. Obama has as much experience if not less than Sarah Palin.