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If finalized, the rule will throw the nation into an energy crisis,"
said Roger Horton, founder of Citizens for Coal.
I scanned this yesterday, but couldn't bear to read it in full. Might as well get it over with now, as last night's challah-baking was a disaster and I have to start all over again this morning. That, at least, is not irreparable.
From a source called "Greenwire," by way of the New York Times - and edited for clarity by Yours Truly:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Here in the heart of coal country, just miles from numerous mining operations, a series of politicians, industry leaders and state regulators yesterday voiced strong opposition to the Obama administration's rewriting of rules to protect waterways from mountaintop removal mining.
Critics spoke in near-apocalyptic terms about the Office of Surface Mining [OSM]'s effort to develop a new stream protection rule to replace George W. Bush-era regulations, saying it would kill thousands of jobs and jeopardize communities that depend on coal mining.
[OSM] has been under fire from all sides. Coal industry boosters want OSM to enforce the Bush-era rule, which the administration tried to scrap, only to be rebuked by a federal judge. Meanwhile, environmentalists .... want a strict buffer between mining operations and waterways, something they say would help stamp out the practice of mountaintop removal mining.
But in a statement, OSM leaders say they are "developing a more thorough rule to better protect streams from the adverse effects of coal mining...
.... "If finalized, the rule will throw the nation into an energy crisis," said Roger Horton, founder of Citizens for Coal....
... Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) said coal communities in his district "would be devastated by the proposed rule change." Earlier this year, he pushed for an amendment to a House spending bill to block OSM from proceeding with the rulemaking....
Johnson also accused OSM of "collusion" with environmentalists. A settlement with environmental groups is a main reason for the agency moving forward with a new rule....
While the administration's effort is meant to address problems caused by surface mining, industry insiders worry it will also have a dramatic negative effect on underground coal mining, especially longwall mining. That is an old but increasingly mechanized coal extraction method whereby companies can remove more material from underground. Even though the industry touts the method as efficient and safer for workers down below, critics point at extensive property and stream damage on the surface.
"These standards could make longwall mines impossible to permit and operate," said Katherine Frederiksen, an environment and regulatory affairs executive at CONSOL Energy Inc....
Administration critics at the hearing also noted that earlier this year the agency severed ties with the company hired to help perform the draft EIS after a leaked document suggested the proposal would cost 7,000 coal jobs and a reduction in Appalachian production, among other impacts.
Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who led the hearing, and Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), are conducting an investigation. "I am deeply concerned that the Obama administration may be guilty of suppressing inconvenient facts," Lamborn said....
This may be the money quote:
Coal producing states have been openly hostile to
the administration's overall efforts at increased oversight...
From my own perspective, the reverse would be more accurate:
"The Obama administration has been openly hostile to coal producing states."
In West Virginia, coal is our primary industry, generating more than 60 percent of the state's business taxes. It provides 63,000 jobs, $3.2 billion in wages (at an average of $68,500 a year, double the state average) and more than $26 billion in total economic impact each year.
This "war" affects not only coal states, but has wider implications as well. I'll give you just one example, one company. Take a look at JOY MINING MACHINERY. For 90 years, they have been manufacturing, distributing and servicing underground mining machinery.
Photo from Wikipedia shows a longwall mining equipment system - hydraulic chocks, conveyor and shearer. (We're not talking 19th or even 20th century coal mining here.)
JOY employs over 6,100 people. And they're hiring -- in the U.S. -- in Accounting/Finance, Administrative/Clerical, Engineering, Field Operations, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, marketing/Sales, Manufacturing Operations, Quality Control and Supply Chain.
by Rick Richman, Special to the Sun
Secretary of State Clinton, in a sharp departure from her stance when she was a senator, is warning that any American action, even symbolically, toward recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel must be avoided for the reason that it would jeopardize the peace process.
Her warnings were issued in a brief she has just filed with the Supreme Court — in which she is arguing that a law she voted for when she was Senator is unconstitutional because it could require the U.S. government to give to an American citizen born at Jerusalem papers showing the birthplace as Israel.
The law requiring the government to issue such documents on request passed the Senate unanimously at a time when Mrs. Clinton was a member. But Presidents Bush and Obama have taken the position that the law infringes on the president’s prerogatives in respect of foreign policy. Mrs. Clinton is being sued by an American youngster, Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born at Jerusalem in 2002 to American parents who want his birthplace to be listed on his passport as Israel.
In addition to citing the peace process...Mrs. Clinton’s brief adds a new twist to the story of the White House photos first disclosed last month by the New York Sun....
.... Mrs. Clinton’s brief alleges that any American action that “symbolically or concretely” signals it recognizes Jerusalem being in Israel would “critically compromise the ability of the United States to work with Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region to further the peace process.” The brief contends that American policy is to remain neutral over all sovereignty issues, leaving them to negotiations, and that the U.S. thus “does not recognize Palestinian claims to current sovereignty” in the West Bank or Gaza either.
It is that latter statement that requires further revision to the Biden photos on the White House website. Two of the photos from Biden’s trip show him meeting with Palestinian officials in the “Palestinian Territories”....
Read it all -- and stay tuned to find out what historical documents the administration will "revise" next!
The annual survey conducted by AJC shows that 48% of Jewish voters disapprove of Obama's handling of the presidency, and 53% disapprove of his handling of U.S.-Israel relations (up from 45% a year ago).
Support for a "palistinian state" has declined as well. A year ago 48% of respondents supported the establishment of such a state, but only 38% said so this year.
88 percent disapprove of the current specific effort to unilaterlly declare a state outside of a negotiated agreement with Israel, and 95% say the palistinians should be required to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of any agreement.
Here is the president's Rosh HaShanah message, if you can bear to watch it.
The part that makes me especially crazy comes when he says,
... As the high holidays begin, we look back on all the moments during the past year that give us reason to hope. Around the world, a new generation is reaching for their universal rights...."
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States' Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries.
"Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders," the head of the Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Sayyari gave no details of when such a deployment could happen or the number or type of vessels to be used....
| 1:25 PM |
The President departs Los Angeles, California
Local Event Time:
10:25 AM PDT |
| 3:25 PM |
The President arrives Denver, Colorado
Local Event Time:
1:25 PM MDT |
| 4:15 PM |
The President delivers remarks at Abraham Lincoln High School
Local Event Time:
2:15 PM MDT |
| 5:50 PM |
The President departs Denver, Colorado en route Joint Base Andrews
Local Event Time:
3:50 PM MDT |
| 9:00 PM |
The President arrives Joint Base Andrews
Joint Base Andrews
|
| 9:15 PM |
The President arrives the White House
South Lawn
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People may think this is fear-mongering on my part, but it's not. It's just fear. No mongering.
And this just hit my inbox, to boot:
I enjoy talking about fundraising deadlines as much as I imagine you enjoy hearing about them. But this Friday's deadline is important. It's a chance for us to prove how we're different from any campaign in politics: We rely on ordinary Americans giving what they can -- one grassroots donation at a time. This is not just a campaign. It's a chance for each of us as citizens to organize and change the course of history. And before we close the books this Friday at midnight, I hope you'll become a part of it. Please donate $3 or more today. I'll be calling some grassroots donors like you by phone this week, so I can say thank you. And if I don't call you, there's a chance I'll see you at dinner with three other supporters sometime soon. Even if I don't get to thank you personally, every single donation counts: https://donate.barackobama.com/Friday-Deadline Thanks for doing your part, Barack
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.... The West Virginia state legislature is deemed a part-time job, and legislators are currently paid only $20,000 in annual salary. But the perks can add up. Tomblin’s travel expenses over the past eleven years amount to $268,232.88. In 1998, he spent $74,000 to redecorate his office, and the Charleston Daily Mail detailed some of the expenses: “about $800 to re-letter doors at the Capitol with Tomblin’s name instead of Manchin’s, about $2,700 for pens and pencils with Tomblin’s name on them,more than $7,000 for letterhead stationery and envelopes, $469.93 for 8-by-10-inch photos of Tomblin.”
While accumulating enormous political power in the state, Tomblin has received exceptionally little public scrutiny....
.... As late as November 2010, on the eve of his debut as governor, local press called him “something of an enigma.” The local public radio station declared, “when he became acting governor earlier this month, the appointment left many West Virginians asking, ‘Who?’”
Tomblin’s Republican rival, Bill Maloney, could not be a starker contrast.
For starters, he has never served in any government job before. He founded North American Drillers in 1984, a company that started by drilling 24-inch support shafts for mines and expanded until it was capable of handling jobs as large as 18-foot-diameter shafts. Maloney sold his share of the company in 2006. During a family vacation in Cape May, N.J., last year, he heard details about the plight of the trapped Chilean miners; the Chilean government expected them to be rescued on a four-month timeline, and Maloney felt compelled to devise a plan that could work more quickly.
“I had known all along that I would end up in Chile, working to rescue those miners,” Maloney later recalled. “We arrived at the mine site in Chile on September 4, and timely planning and good fortune enabled us to begin drilling with DTH technology on September 5. Center Rock had fabricated the drilling equipment required for Plan B in days instead of the weeks usually required due to the specialized parts that are made per individual project requirements. . . . While the drillers lost and wore out numerous drill bits, they were still able to reach the underground mine workshop at 8:05 a.m. on October 9.”
Maloney describes his role in the Chilean-miner rescue in detail here.
One Republican watching the race closely from Washington offers a healthy serving of caution alongside his optimism:
“Outside of presidential politics, West Virginia is very much still a Democratic state. They have a two-to-one registration advantage, just elected a U.S. senator in a wave election year in 2010, control both state legislative chambers, etc. Having said that, the pressure is really on the Democrats to win this one. It’s already much closer than they ever anticipated, and it’d certainly sting to lose the governor’s office that Manchin gave up.”
If nothing else, Maloney has demonstrated striking momentum. A poll released by the Democratic Governors Association on August 25 showed Tomblin leading Maloney 47 percent to 33 percent. But by September 7, a Public Policy Polling survey showed a much narrower gap: 46 percent to 40 percent.
My state has so much riding on this election that Geraghty's last bit actually made me cry (pleease don't tell him):
.... While Maloney remains an underdog, he appears to be surging. A defeat of Tomblin might rank alongside Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts or Bob Turner’s recent win in New York’s ninth congressional district — as a sign that Obama’s stances and record have severely damaged the Democratic party’s image and reputation, even in its most secure political strongholds.
A Maloney win would also declare that the era of business as usual in West Virginia’s state government has finally come to an end.
Bill and Sharon Maloney and family. Photo by Thorney Lieberman.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is often assailed as a conservative yahoo, yet on immigration he's getting whacked from the right for being soft on illegals. Michele Bachmann has portrayed him as weak on border enforcement, and Mitt Romney has decried his support of in-state college tuition rates for illegal aliens. We think Mr. Perry's positions reflect those of a border state executive taking a pragmatic approach to the economic realities of immigration.
During last week's GOP debate, Ms. Bachmann repeated her wish to build a fence "on every inch of the southern border," which may be an applause line but differs little on substance from Mr. Perry. The Texan has said repeatedly that he favors physical barriers where they can be effective but that some areas lend themselves better to "boots on the ground" or virtual fences such as motion detectors and remote-control cameras.
Not that additional security measures will solve the problem. For at least two decades, and especially since 9/11, U.S. immigration policy has focused on throwing more resources at border security. Multitiered fencing was erected in San Diego and El Paso under President Clinton. Border patrol budgets ballooned under President Bush. Deportations have increased under President Obama.
All of this has had some deterrent effect, and combined with the struggling economy has in recent years slowed the flow of illegals to modern lows. What drives those who are still crossing the border illegally is the dearth of legal ways to enter the country for people looking for work. Under our current system, it is nearly impossible for a typical Mexican to migrate to the U.S. legally within his lifetime. If the U.S. supplied enough work visas to meet demand, fewer migrants would have reason to enter illegally, and border resources could focus on genuine threats.
Mr. Romney's outrage that Texas offers college tuition subsidies to illegal residents is also opportunistic, assuming it is sincere at all. In 2001, Texas passed the nation's first state law that allowed undocumented high school graduates to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. To qualify, students have to attend school in the state for at least three years and file an affidavit saying that they plan to seek permanent residency.
Mr. Perry didn't help himself by calling his critics on this issue heartless, and he could do a better job of explaining the program's rationale. Lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities aren't akin to welfare for the indigent; they're not means-tested. They're a discount for residency. The same logic applies to hunting or fishing licenses....
Continue HERE.
