Union Pressures Obama to Reconsider Ill-Conceived Anti-Coal Regulations

On March 16th, Teamsters Rail Conference president Dennis Pierce wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to reconsider the job-killing regulations that he pushed his EPA to write on the use of coal.

The ill-considered, tough new rules on coal use could potentially impact one out of every five Teamsters Rail Conference members and as Pierce said ” it is not likely that new business generated on our nation’s railroads will ever make up for the loss of coal.”

The EPA had announced that up to 40% of the nations coal plants did not meet its tough new standards. Instead of granting energy producers more time to comply with the regulation, the regulatory body took a tough stance forcing electricity generators to announce the shuttering of their plants as they could not meet the rules in the time given.

Pierce also mentioned in his letter that in these tough times, America needs more jobs, not less – a fact not well understood by the current administration as it seeks to achieve Obama’s self-stated goal of making electricity rates “skyrocket”.

Pierce asked the administration to support the petitions for reconsideration of the new source emission limits that will be filed with the EPA. “We also ask you to include coal in your ‘all of the above’ plan for America’s energy future so that a balanced energy policy can be maintained,” he said.

As President Obama is relying heavily on Union backing for his re-election bid, the pressure coming from the Rail Conference may be well-timed. The White House has today announced that Obama will sign an executive order to grant permits to the lower half of the XL pipeline – perhaps this latest salvo from the unions will grant electricity producers a similar reprieve.