Coal Companies Target Congressional Democrats

(AP)  An Appalachian coal company is asking its competitors to pool their money for a political offensive against Democrats in Kentucky and West Virginia they believe are anti-coal.

International Coal Group wants other mining companies to take advantage of a U.S. Supreme Court decision loosening restrictions on corporate contributions to political causes.

ICG Senior Vice President Roger Nicholson said in an e-mail he wanted to target Democratic U.S. Reps. Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Nick Rahall of West Virginia, and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky.

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"A number of coal industry representatives recently have been considering developing a 527 entity with the purpose of attempting to defeat anti-coal incumbents in select races, as well as elect pro-coal candidates running for certain open seats," he said in the e-mail.

The e-mail was first reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Nicholson said in the e-mail that four companies, including Massey Energy, have already had "theoretical discussions" about the initiative and are developing an action plan. He proposed that interested companies meet in August during a West Virginia Coal Association event.

Massey Energy said in a statement Wednesday that it "has not committed to being involved in a 527 at this time."

Mine safety advocate Tony Oppegard, a Lexington attorney and former government regulator, said he was concerned because the companies that seem to be behind the effort have poor safety records. "They've all had miners die recently," he said.

United Mine Workers regional vice president Steve Earle said the proposal was appalling.

"I think it's blood money. The coal industry absolutely wants to defeat anyone in Congress who wants to stand on the side of right," he said.

Press aides for Chandler and Conway declined comment. A Rahall spokesman didn't immediately return a phone message.

Nicholson defended the proposal in a statement Wednesday, saying he wants to protect a coal industry under attack.

"The Obama administration, through the EPA, and the Congress controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are taking steps that seek ultimately to eliminate coal production and its use," he said in a statement. "We believe that these goals are disastrous for Kentucky and West Virginia, and would constitute an egregious national energy policy that would make us more, not less, dependent on foreign governments."

Nicholson said the companies' interest is in protecting the industry from what he called overzealous environmental regulation. He objected to accusations that the industry is targeting politicians for their stands on mine safety.

"The coal industry is not opposed to reasonable and appropriate legislation that will truly improve mine safety," Nicholson said. "The notion that mine safety is not important to the industry is absurd; the costs of safety lapses far outweigh, in both human and monetary costs, any alleged monetary gains by cutting safety corners."

[BringMoney]

Good for the coal companies. Dump the Democrats because they love government and hate business and capitalism.

[sharkboy234]

HATE THE TEA PARTY HATE THE TEA PARTY HATE THE TEA PARTY NO RUTHLESS REPUBLICANS THEY ARE INGLORIUS BASTARDS!

[asine1]

I believe the mines need to adhere to safety protocols more because of all the accidents but lets face it, the mine is not a safe place to work. I know that if they put so many regulations on coal companies that they find it more of a burden than it's worth to operate and then the WV and KY economies are going to fall. It is already hard enough to find a job in WV and if we lose the thousands of jobs that the coal companies produces then where are those people supposed to work? Many households are heated by coal and wood, well if the wood is dwindling and the coal is gone then everyone will have to rely on electric and gas to heat their homes, which is just a notch below unrealistically high for those around the poverty level. If we lose the coal companies there will be a domino effect that will hurt pretty much every person in lower and middle class.

[us_1776]

It's not about being Anti-Coal.

It's about being responsible.
It's about not skirting the law.
It's about a fair wage for a days work.
It's about protecting the environment.

And Big-Coal should not see those as Anti-Coal because they're not.

These things are Pro-America.

[dadirt]

No,
They are anti coal, Obama was against coal in his election. They US is going broke, Obama has killed the jobs market, coal is abundant in the US and Canada. fossil fuels make keep this country moving, electric cars need power to charge the batteries, poer to make the batteries, power to make the cars, power to make all the components used in the cars. If you want to put another 50 million people on unemployment, tax the hell out of oil, coal adn natural gas producers and put all that money into Obama and the dems hand to spend it on more useless programs. The fed make more money in taxes on oil and natural gas then do the oil companies, almost 2 times more and they are not happy with that until. We need jobs, energy and logical thought to run this country, not a bunch of tree hugging, politically correct socialist in charge!