Blog Posts > Coal’s Clout Endures in Washington Even as Jobs Decline
April 8, 2014

Coal’s Clout Endures in Washington Even as Jobs Decline

Bloomberg BusinessWeek – Natalie Tennant, the presumptive Democratic nominee for West Virginia’s open U.S. Senate seat, got an earful visiting a company where workers said President Barack Obama’s environmental policies threaten their jobs. Read

“I’ll fight it,” Tennant said of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule affecting coal-fired power plants during a campaign stop at McBride Electrical Inc., a Welch, West Virginia company that builds power lines for coal producers. “You have to have somebody who will stand up.”

Her outspoken opposition to the policies of a president of her own party reflects the unique politics of coal-mining states, which keep Congress stocked with industry allies even as mining jobs wane. In Kentucky, another coal state, Democrat Alison Grimes is siding with the industry as she battles for the seat of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

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