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Alabama GOP leaders: Obama’s ‘War on Coal’ is ‘an assault on our way of life’

From left to right: Republican National Committeeman Paul Reynolds, PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh, PSC Commissioner Jeremy Oden, PSC Commissioner-elect Chip Beeker
From left to right: Republican National Committeeman Paul Reynolds, PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh, PSC Commissioner Jeremy Oden, PSC Commissioner-elect Chip Beeker

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Republican leaders assembled at the Alabama Coal Association headquarters in Birmingham on Monday to slam proposed regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency that they say constitute an assault on Alabamians’ way of life.

Alabama Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, Commissioner Jeremy Oden, Commissioner-elect Chip Beeker, and Republican National Committeeman Paul Reynolds each spoke out against the proposed regulations, which could cost the United States more than 220,000 jobs over the next several years, according to a recently-released study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“As President of the Alabama Public Service Commission, I promised that I would fight to keep our utility rates affordable and services reliable,” said Cavanaugh. “At a time when families and businesses can least afford to pay, Barack Obama’s federal mandates are restricting our ability to make the best decisions for our state. The Obama Administration is deliberately trying to kill existing coal jobs in Alabama and make it more difficult for our small businesses and industry to create jobs.”

Oden compared the proposed EPA regulations to ObamaCare, strong language considering it takes an estimated 80 million man-hours per year for American business to comply with the president’s healthcare law.

“These proposed regulations to end the use of coal in Alabama are a federal overreach matched only by ObamaCare,” Oden said. “With so many Alabama jobs at stake, I will fight Obama and his EPA at every turn.”

Beeker, who won the Republican primary runoff for PSC – Place 2 on July 15th and faces no opposition in the General Election, said that his election was a clear repudiation of the EPA by Alabama voters. Beeker defeated incumbent commissioner Terry Dunn, who had sided with environmental groups in a series of votes prior to his defeat.

“The people of Alabama sent a very strong message of rejection to the EPA and its liberal policies on July 15,” he said. “I will passionately uphold my promise to fight Obama’s EPA and the liberal environmentalists as the next member of the Alabama Public Service Commission.”

Reynolds, who was the lone non-elected official participating in the press conference, is chairman of the Alabama Free Market Alliance, in addition to his duties as Alabama’s male representative on the Republican National Committee.

“Coal is one of Alabama’s most abundant natural resources, and we as a state – in the exercise of our sovereignty – should have the ability to make our own decisions on how we want to best utilize our God-given natural resources,” he said. “Making villains out of the coal industry and the hard-working men and women who rely upon it may make great political hay at Georgetown cocktail parties of the liberal elite, but shutting it down completely is simply an unacceptable path for our state and our nation.”

The new proposed regulations would have a disproportionate impact on southern states, where energy costs would skyrocket by an estimated $6.6 billion per year over the next decade-and-a-half. The “East-South-Central” region of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky would see its GDP shrink by an estimated $2.2 billion and would lose 21,400 jobs as a result of the new regulations.

The EPA is conducting public hearings on the proposed regulations across the nation this week. Cavanaugh, Oden, Beeker and Reynolds will be testifying at the hearings in Atlanta. They will be joined by fellow Alabamians Luther Strange, the state’s attorney general, and Blaine Galliher, a senior advisor to Gov. Robert Bentley. They are all expected to voice their opposition to the EPA’s proposal.

Yellowhammer will be in Atlanta to cover the hearings first-hand.


Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

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