The Colorado governor happily sold out Colorado to Obama last year, apparently in exchange for the loss of two industries. Magpul already left the state, and now Obama is killing the coal industry here.
The Great Divider focuses on global warming, coal
The IRS has weakened the fabric of freedom by targeting people for political and religious views. The National Security Agency tracks civilian phone calls. The Federal Bureau of Investigation spies on the media. Our economy remains in low gear.
No wonder President Barack Obama wants to talk global warming.
The Great Divider spoke Tuesday to students at Georgetown University and promised windmills and solar gadgets on public lands by 2020. This likely means we’re in for more careless investment of our hard-earned capital.
The president promised tougher emissions standards on new and existing power plants, such as the two coal-fired units that power Colorado Springs. He implied a desire to create even more barriers to completion of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that will otherwise create jobs and more potential freedom from Middle East oil.
In confronting coal, Obama took on our country’s most promising export and an industry crucial to Colorado’s stability. Colorado has 10 active coal mines and 14 coal-fired power plants that provide affordable and reliable electricity to the Springs and much of the rest of the state. The coal industry is a major Colorado employer.
“Royalties paid by the industry benefit thousands of Coloradans,” wrote Sean Paige, deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity. “Obama’s war on coal thus isn’t just an attack on affordable energy, but an attack on a major driver of Colorado’s economy, without which the state would be hurting.”
While coal is a proven asset, Obama’s alternatives have mostly proved disappointing. Take Colorado’s own Abound Solar, which the president promoted in a 2010 speech. His administration gave Abound a $400 million loan guarantee and Obama told us the company would “create more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.” In addition to the jobs, Obama told us the Longmont-based company, and others like it, would help “create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.”
Instead, the company went bankrupt in 2012 and left 125 workers unemployed. The failure stuck taxpayers with the loss. There was the Solyndra fiasco and multiple rounds of First Solar layoffs. The list of failed or faltering alternative energy companies, bankrolled by Obama, is long and distinguished.
The Great Divider focuses on global warming, coal
