Big Coal: Government regulation sucks, but don’t you dare touch our government subsidies

http://grist.org/politics/big-coal-government-regulation-sucks-but-dont-you-dare-touch-our-government-subsidies/

On Tuesday, the coal industry bused a few thousand miners from coal country into Washington, D.C., for a protest in front of the Capitol against the Obama administration’s so-called “war on coal.”

Speakers, many of them senators and members of Congress, and attendees interviewed by reporters complained that EPA restrictions on new coal-fired power plants would cost their community jobs. The complaints also pointed to secondary effects, such as higher electricity bills and reduced economic activity to support local businesses in states such as Kentucky.

Here’s a typical line, from Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.): “Keep your regulatory hands off the throat of the coal mining industry and our coal mining jobs.”

Politicians who represent coal states like to pretend that all they want is for government to leave them alone to go their rugged individualist way.