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Confirmed: Top Obama Administration Official Admits to a War on Coal

June 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate Floor regarding EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s recent confirmation that the Administration is waging a War on Coal:

“In the Obama Administration’s latest offensive in its War on Coal, it has proposed new regulations that threaten Kentucky’s 20 existing coal-fired power plants while potentially putting thousands out of work.
 
“If enacted, the massive new regulations would prove the single worst blow to Kentucky’s economy in modern times—and a dagger to the heart of the Commonwealth’s Middle Class.
 
“Despite what they are called, the proposed restrictions on Kentucky’s coal-fired power plants amount to little more than a massive energy tax. And they will have a devastating effect on Kentucky.
 
“The Administration announced it would hold four public hearings on the new proposed regulations. And, given the dramatic effects they’re sure to have on my home state, you’d think they’d hold at least one of those hearings in Eastern Kentucky, or somewhere in Kentucky at the very least.

“But then, you’d be mistaken.
 
“Once again, just like last year when the Obama Administration held public hearings before proposing this national energy tax, not one of the sessions is slated for a non-metropolitan area dependent on coal. The nearest location to Eastern Kentucky is a 10-hour round trip away.
 
“Since coal employs over 11,000 Kentuckians and accounts for over 90 percent of Kentucky’s electricity, I wrote a letter to Gina McCarthy, the EPA administrator, formally requesting that she convene a hearing in coal country. I have yet to get a response.
 
“It doesn’t appear that Administrator McCarthy is too busy to talk to some people, however. Imagine my surprise this weekend when I learned that she found the time Friday night to appear on an HBO late-night comedy show, where she admitted that the Obama Administration is in fact waging a War on Coal.
 
“The host asked her this question, quote: ‘Some people called it a War on Coal. I hope it is a War on Coal. Is it?’
 
“After a moment of indirection, Administrator McCarthy conceded that a War on Coal is, quote, ‘exactly what this is.’
 
“Of course, this talk show was recorded in front of a friendly anti-coal host and audience, in a television studio in Los Angeles. It almost sounds like the site of one of her EPA’s anti-coal hearings.
 
“Why does Administrator McCarthy have the time to appear on HBO, but not to appear on WYMT-TV in Hazard, so she can explain her War on Coal to the people it is most directly affecting?
 
“Why does she have time to sit down with a TV comedian, but not with the editors of the Appalachian News Express in Pikeville, so she can look my constituents in the eye and explain how these rules will impact them?
 
“Of course, for those of us who watch this Administration closely, this kind of admission is nothing new. A year ago, an adviser to the White House acknowledged that, quote, ‘a War on Coal is exactly what’s needed.’
 
“Last year, because the Obama Administration refused to hold any of its listening sessions in Coal Country, I held one of my own. We heard a lot of riveting testimony from coal miners, those in the coal industry, and their families, and I brought their stories back to the Administration where I testified on their behalf since the administrator wouldn’t hear from them directly.
 
“I’m committed to making sure Kentucky’s voice is heard on this issue, even if the Obama Administration doesn’t want to listen. That’s why I immediately responded to the Administration’s new regulations with my own legislation, the Coal Country Protection Act, to push back against the president’s extreme anti-coal scheme.
 
“Supported by the Kentucky Coal Association, my legislation would require that the following simple but important benchmarks be met before his rules take effect:

  • One, the Secretary of Labor would have to certify that the new rules would not generate loss of employment.
  • Two, the Director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office would have to certify the rules would not result in any loss in American gross domestic product.
  • Three, the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration would have to certify the rules would not increase electricity rates.
  • And four, the Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the President of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation would have to certify that electricity delivery would remain reliable.

“That’s it. My legislation is just plain common sense. And I urge the Majority Leader to allow a vote on my legislation.”

McConnell Questions ‘Lost’ IRS Scandal Emails

June 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate Floor regarding the latest Obama Administration revelation in the IRS scandal:

“When the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups came to light after the last presidential election, just about everyone denounced the agency’s Nixonian tactics.
 
“Members of both parties, from the President on down, called it outrageous and inexcusable, and just about everyone agreed that no stone should be left unturned in figuring out how it happened in the first place.
 
“Well, that was more than a year ago. And despite the President’s assurances that he was just as mad as everybody else, his Administration has been anything but cooperative in the time that’s elapsed since then.

“Instead of working with Congress to get to the bottom of what happened, the President’s allies actually went in the opposite direction. They tried to slip a regulation by the American people that would have effectively enshrined the IRS’ speech suppression tactics — the kind of tactics at the center of the IRS scandal — as permanent agency practice.
 
“It was a brazen move on the Administration’s part. And Administration officials only backed down after Americans rose up and demanded that the IRS get out of the speech suppression business for good. Even some of our friends on the pro-First Amendment Left — a dwindling constituency in recent years — joined us in condemning it.
 
“But I doubt we’ve seen the last of the Administration’s anti-free speech efforts.
 
“We’ve seen a revival in recent weeks of a radical proposal to change the First Amendment. And when it comes to the IRS scandal, it’s now quite obvious that we haven’t seen the last of the Administration’s stalling either.
 
“The latest claim by the IRS is that it somehow lost a full two years-worth of emails from the woman in charge of the IRS department at the center of the scandal.
 
“But Congress submitted a request for these emails over a year ago.
 
“And they’re suddenly telling us this now?
 
“The committees investigating the scandal need those emails in order to figure out who knew what and when — and to determine whether any coordination was going on between the IRS and anyone outside the agency.
 
“So I’ll be interested to see what the IRS Commissioner has to say about all this when he testifies next week.

“But please, let’s just skip past the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuses, buried in a late Friday news dump.
 
“The President promised to work ‘hand in hand’ with Congress on this matter.
 
“So his Administration needs to live up to that promise.
 
“Immediately.”

Obama Administration Needs a Plan to Assist and Stabilize Iraq

June 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate Floor regarding ISIL and the need to assist Iraq:

“The world is learning of the profound challenge confronting our nation as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant sweeps across Iraq. We hear the names of former battlefields in Iraq and remember the hard fought gains in places like Fallujah and Al Qaim and Ramadi.

“And just as many Americans hadn’t heard of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula before a terrorist attempted to detonate an explosive device on an airliner over Detroit in 2009, they are now learning of ISIL – a vicious terrorist organization that operates across portions of Syria and Iraq. Like AQAP, ISIL consists of an insurgency that threatens stability in the region where it trains and fights, and that presents a terrorist threat to the United States.

“The Iraqi security forces that cowered in the face of ISIL advances are now less capable than when the President withdrew the entirety of our force without successfully negotiating a capable remaining U.S. presence. Such a force would have preserved the gains made on the ground by mentoring our partners and assisting with command and control and intelligence sharing.

“Now we must grapple with how best to help Iraq meet this threat. ISIL is a lethal, violent terrorist force, and its activities in Syria and Iraq represent a grave threat to U.S. Interests. The Administration must act quickly to provide assistance to the Maliki government before every gain made by U.S. and allied troops is lost, and before ISIL expands its sanctuary—from which it can eventually threaten the United States.

“Several weeks ago, the President spoke at West Point. And in that speech, he vaguely described a new counterterrorism strategy that he said ‘matches this diffuse threat by ‘expand[ing] our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin, or [that] stir up local resentments.’ And he said that ‘we need partners to fight terrorists alongside us.’

“So the President must quickly provide us with a strategy and plan that address the threat posed by the insurgency and the terrorist capabilities of ISIL, and he must explain that new strategy.”

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