Coal group not upset by Elaine Chao serving on board
Mitch McConnell was in my home county yesterday. This is a very important race between he and Alison Grimes and could determine who controls the Senate? It is very possible that the coal-mining counties of SE Kentucky could determine who wins the next election?
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http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/08/3371760/coal-group-no-doubts-about-mcconnells.html?sp=/99/322/&ihp=1
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FRANKFORT, Ky. — A trade group representing Kentucky's coal industry defended Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell on Friday after a published report said his wife is a board member of an organization that has spent $50 million to close coal-fired power plants.
Yahoo News reported that Elaine Chao, McConnell's wife and the labor secretary under President George W. Bush, sits on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charity founded by former New York City mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg
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The United Mine Workers of America, which endorsed Grimes on Saturday, said in a statement that Chao is free to join any board she chooses but added: "One would think that, as the spouse of a Kentucky politician, she would choose more carefully when it comes to taking a leadership role in an organization that had recently invested in the destruction of the American coal industry and the jobs of American coal miners."
The union represents about 2 percent of the state's active coal miners, but has roughly 10,000 retired members in Kentucky. The Kentucky Coal Association has 23 member companies and 150 associate members, which it says represents about 90 percent of the state's coal production.
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In further news from the Kentucky race, Mitch McConnell and Hal Rogers were in Bell County, in SE Kentucky yesterday;
http://www.middlesborodailynews.com/news/home_top-news/50209988/McConnell-Rogers-visit-Bell-County
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Rogers said his district alone has lost 8,000 miners because of the policies of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“If we can just survive through the Obama presidency and live, we’ll be lucky,” Rogers said. “We need the strongest, powerful voice we can find to represent Kentucky and our coal mining industry … to fight for Kentucky’s cause in Washington.”
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McConnell also expressed negative feelings toward the Obama administration. He said the rest of the world is not following the U.S. in regards to climate change regulations.
“As the rest of the world constructs new coal plants and begins to use more coal, we go in the opposite direction,” said McConnell. “Australia repealed its cap and trade system.”
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