Mitt Romney will be stopping in Salem, VA today [Tuesday, 6/26] at Carter Machinery, one of the country’s leading Caterpillar dealers with over 20 locations and 1100 employees.
Gov. Romney, we welcome you to Southwest Virginia.
UPDATE:WDBJ Channel 7 in Roanoke will be live streaming the speech beginning at Noon. Catch it here
I would like to suggest that you not stop at just Salem. Continue deeper into the coalfields and see what Obama’s EPA wants to do to us who depend on coal for our very existence.
Surface mining permits have slowed to a crawl, or even stopped. Ask your hosts at Caterpillar about what that will do, or has done, to their business.
Come on out across 460 to Cedar Bluff, Richlands, Vansant, and Hurley. Don’t forget Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling’s hometown of Haysi. Once you cross the big mountains, stop in any Ford or Chevy dealership along the way and you’ll find that nearly every sale is to someone with a coal connected job.
Grab a ham biscuit at a convenience store. Especially in the smaller of these towns and you’ll find that every dime in their cash register originated in a coal mine somewhere.
Caterpillar is not the only machinery manufacturer who will be hurt. Take that big ol’ bus down I81 to Abingdon and talk to the folks at Joy. Joy manufactures the machinery that digs the coal underground. Just like Caterpillar does on the surface.
EPA’s surface permitting policies are hurting Caterpillar, their unrealistic and unachievable air quality standards are hurting Joy. Together they are hurting everyone.
Take the scenic route across the KY line and visit my old employer, Trey K Mining Electric in Kimper. Trey K manufactures the power centers that provide electric power to the underground equipment and conveyors. They also make the finest control systems for belt-lines, pumps, fans, and anything else that needs controlling, including processing plants.
I spoke with Kirby Elkins, VP of Trey K, yesterday morning. Not a formal interview, just a friendly chat. They are already hurting. He wonders why his customers outside Appalachia seemingly are escaping the EPA’s wrath. Alabama, fine. Ohio and Indiana, fine. Pennsylvania’s coal producers are also fine he said.
Enron’s failure hurt Trey K a few years ago, (resulting in my lay-off), but things now seem worse. After Enron they had built back up to nearly 50 employees. Today they are at roughly half that.
Spend some time in the coalfields, Gov. Romney. Speak to the hundreds of miners and others who have already lost their jobs due to Obama’s policies.
Travel from Lee County, VA to Logan County, WV, to Harlan County in KY. Talk to the convenience store owners, the independent grocers, even the Wal-Mart managers and learn what the EPA is planning to do to hundreds of thousands of good people who live because of coal.
The one bright spot is that currently none of this is impacting metallurgical coal. Only the stuff that makes steam. Perhaps that’s because only metallurgical coal can make a solar panel. (With a much higher overall impact on air quality.)
You can find more EPA permitting information here:
http://www.facesofcoal.org/index.php?mining-permits
