Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
DOE official doesn't mince words: I'm not a researcher or a scientist; I'm an advocate for coal.
Last edited Fri Feb 2, 2018, 12:38 PM - Edit history (1)
Retweeted by Taylor Kuykendall: https://twitter.com/taykuy
Trump DOE official doesn't mince words: "I'm not a researcher, I'm not a scientist, I'm an advocate for the coal industry."
Link to tweet
Energy department adviser assures US coal industry he's 'here to help' https://platform.mi.spglobal.com/web/client?auth=inherit#news/article?id=43381678&cdid=A-43381678-12327 …
Link to tweet
Energy department adviser assures US coal industry he's 'here to help' EXCLUSIVE
Wednesday, 31 January 2018 1:58 PM ET
By Taylor Kuykendall
A top assistant to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry reassured the West Virginia coal industry the department has efforts underway to aid the sector, including a follow-up to a failed effort to provide greater financial support to coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
President Donald Trump's administration wants to continue a broad rollback of regulations, special adviser Doug Matheney said. The former Count on Coal advocate, now in the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, said that as a former coal miner and county commissioner, he has seen first-hand what happens to a community when a coal mine closes.
"The good news is I'm with the federal government and I'm here to help," he said Jan. 31 at the West Virginia Mining Symposium in Charleston, W.Va. "I went to Washington, D.C., for one purpose and that was to help create coal jobs in the United States. That's my total purpose for being there. I'm not a researcher, I'm not a scientist, I'm an advocate for the coal industry."
The comments echo similar remarks made by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior policy adviser Mandy Gunasekara when she told attendees of a coal conference in Florida last year that she wanted to "make sure what we're doing in D.C. is beneficial for you." Multiple speakers throughout the West Virginia conference mentioned the industry has had more input with the new administration.
Wednesday, 31 January 2018 1:58 PM ET
By Taylor Kuykendall
A top assistant to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry reassured the West Virginia coal industry the department has efforts underway to aid the sector, including a follow-up to a failed effort to provide greater financial support to coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
President Donald Trump's administration wants to continue a broad rollback of regulations, special adviser Doug Matheney said. The former Count on Coal advocate, now in the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, said that as a former coal miner and county commissioner, he has seen first-hand what happens to a community when a coal mine closes.
"The good news is I'm with the federal government and I'm here to help," he said Jan. 31 at the West Virginia Mining Symposium in Charleston, W.Va. "I went to Washington, D.C., for one purpose and that was to help create coal jobs in the United States. That's my total purpose for being there. I'm not a researcher, I'm not a scientist, I'm an advocate for the coal industry."
The comments echo similar remarks made by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior policy adviser Mandy Gunasekara when she told attendees of a coal conference in Florida last year that she wanted to "make sure what we're doing in D.C. is beneficial for you." Multiple speakers throughout the West Virginia conference mentioned the industry has had more input with the new administration.
ETA:
Trump official tells coal group he’s ‘an advocate for the coal industry’
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 01/31/18 04:51 PM EST
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 01/31/18 04:51 PM EST
Who are these people? Part 2 - Energy Beachhead Hires
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND DEMOCRACY, WATER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLEAN ENERGY, OIL AND GAS
NATIONAL
MARCH 14, 2017
....
Doug Matheney (Assistant to the Secretary, GS-10, 1/20/17)
According to his LinkedIn profile, since 2013 he has simultaneously worked as a Coordinator for Americans for Prosperity and as the Ohio director of Count on Coal, an Astroturf campaign by the coal industry.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND DEMOCRACY, WATER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLEAN ENERGY, OIL AND GAS
NATIONAL
MARCH 14, 2017
....
Doug Matheney (Assistant to the Secretary, GS-10, 1/20/17)
According to his LinkedIn profile, since 2013 he has simultaneously worked as a Coordinator for Americans for Prosperity and as the Ohio director of Count on Coal, an Astroturf campaign by the coal industry.
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Propaganda up the yin yang there!
So many people lost typewriter mfg jobs. And all those typists...whatever did they do? 
West Virginia seems to have missed the boat on attracting new businesses in other job sectors to their state, and retraining these people. You are stuck in a 1950s rut, while your people live in abject poverty. Maybe if you were a pro-union state, there would be decent paying jobs. See how unions actually benefit your state coffers? People earn more money, and pay more taxes.
This guy is all about the coal companies making money, and not the actual jobs.
Many blame Twilight’s slow demise on Massey Energy, the state’s second largest coal producer (PDF)—and its most controversial. Massey, which merged with Alpha Natural Resources earlier this year, has racked up more health and safety violations in the past decade than any coal outfit in America. In 1997, it opened a surface strip mine near Twilight that now produces 5 million tons of coal annually, all of it dug up and hauled off by about 350 non-union workers (PDF). Many families that weren’t lucky enough to land jobs on the strip have left. The area’s population has fallen from more than 500 in 1990 to less than 250 today. “With mountaintop removal, they can get the coal easier and quicker with less people,” Frankie Mooney, a retired third-generation miner, told me. “People can say what they want to, but there’s no security in coal mining no more.”
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/02/massey-energy-twilight-west-virginia/
