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In 2009, President Barack Obama began his infamous War on Coal after promising to "bankrupt" the industry. He weaponized federal bureaucrats and regulations to go after mines and coal communities across the country. According to the Daily Caller, Obama forced 400 coal mines to close and 83,000 coal miners out of work by the time he left office.
For more than a century, coal has been an irreplaceable part of the Mountain State's culture and economy, but Obama decimated West Virginia's coal country. We cannot afford to lose more jobs to Obama's radical climate agenda, yet the Biden Administration has fully embraced these liberal anti-coal policies.
President Joe Biden appointed John Kerry, a former Obama cabinet secretary and liberal climate change activist, as the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate. On Dec. 2, Kerry made clear he plans to pursue a radical climate agenda that will bankrupt America and give China, the world's largest consumer of coal, a competitive edge.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, he announced the Biden Administration's pledge to end the use of coal by 2035. Kerry outrageously said, "The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants."
Biden's Green New Deal agenda aims to tax and regulate the coal industry out of existence while using taxpayer funds to subsidize wind and solar energy.
President Biden promised, "we're going to be shutting these (coal-powered) plants down all across America."
Liberal Democrats in Congress are helping Biden carry out this extreme agenda. Biden and Nancy Pelosi's $700 billion "Inflation Expansion Act" increased taxes on West Virginia's coal industry while giving away hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy handouts.
This liberal plan raised net taxes on coal mining operations by 7.2%, and it revived an increase in the tax per ton on underground mines from 50 cents to $1.10 and on surface mines from 25 cents to 55 cents. The bill included $570 billion in green energy subsidies, and it provided people making up to $300,000 a $7,500 tax break to buy luxury electric cars.
Simply put, this proposal prioritized handouts to rich California elites to buy expensive battery-powered vehicles over hard-working West Virginia coal miners.
As a conservative, I am proud to have led the fight to stop Biden's climate crusade against coal during my nine years representing West Virginia in Congress. I introduced an amendment to the Lower Energy Costs Act (H.R. 1) to repeal the Biden tax on coal mining operations. Alongside my House Republican colleagues, I voted to pass this plan that would end Biden's ban on leasing new coal mining operations and repeal billions of dollars from liberal climate programs included in the "Inflation Expansion Act." In the House of Representatives, we also passed a bill (H.R. 4821) blocking the Biden Environmental Protection Agency from overregulating coal powered electric plants.
Sadly, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have refused to vote on these much-needed reforms.
While President Biden and his allies resume Obama's War on Coal, I will continue to stand with West Virginia coal miners. Green New Deal policies have no place in the Mountain State. West Virginia produces 14% of the coal in the U.S., and coal-fired electric power plants generate 91% of our state's energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Coal provides jobs and reliable, affordable energy for West Virginia families. Congress must act to end the attacks on American energy by the Biden Administration and out-of-control bureaucrats.
Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., serves the state's 2nd Congressional District and is a candidate for U.S. Senate.