Editor,

Though appearing to be stalled, Cap-and-Trade is alive and well, along with the permanent halting of mountaintop removal and the production of coal in general. Where are our Democratic Representatives?

Now that the Washington Administration is heading into some more problems with Health Care Legislation, they’re again turning up the heat on mountain top removal and pushing Cap & Trade in which is just a higher tax on coal and industry that must use it. Now, the heat gets turned up on the coal producing state’s representatives in Washington to fold on any resistance to the Health Care Legislation the Administration is demanding.

While the federal administration continues to threaten to ruin any medical insurance coverage, that anyone may currently have, they continue to undermine mountain top removal mining. Was the medical insurance (Obama-Care or Scare) issue just a smoke screen to get attention off of the Cap & Trade issues? If so, then our democratic representatives in Washington have fallen for it, and are well over their heads in it! The very organizations and representatives in Washington that helped put these people in office, are now wandering how not to be consumed by them. And that is where they helped put this State. Appalachian Power Company just got (10-01-09) a 12.1 percent rate increase levied on power consumers in our region. And is expected to gain about the same percentages over the next three years, or up to as much as 48 percent. With the Cap & Trade Taxes coming our way, just how much these power company rate increases will be over the next five years, is difficult to determine. The industrial experts in this field of estimating such cost factors indicate that after all these effects come to realization and in effect, that electrical utility bills could see as much as an 80 percent increase over the next few years.

Under the disguise of global warming, the deadly Cap & Trade Tax that will affect every true and legal citizen in the United States of America, just to kill the coal industry, is still coming our way. The Federal Administration is continuing the assault on coal while our representatives are over their heads in this Healthcare Legislation, and “while West Virginia employees are losing their health care insurance” along with their jobs. And we just can’t say “losing mine-related-jobs,” all jobs in West Virginia are mine-related.

The actions and views of this county, state and region’s Democratic Party “are certainly not” the same as the current left wing liberals now in Washington DC and elsewhere. There is a very big difference at this point in time, in which this nation is in a horrible mess with its values and does not reflect upon the citizens of the State of West Virginia. The voters here said “No” to those people of the current administration. It’s obvious that this county, state and region is not in any way aligned with, nor do they condone, as a whole, any such nonsense as is being demonstrated by the so called left-wing-liberals anywhere.

Was it what Obama, and his 78 or so czars, wanted in the first place (closing down the mining industry), but has been pushing socialized medicine to deflect attention to the real socialization of America, Cap and Trade? No company wants to invest, or continue to invest, anything here with the attack on coal mining and West Virginia. The foreign nations like China and Japan are telling our administration that they are preparing to take the major portion of the production, manufacturing and industrial markets when it comes to producing, so-called Green materials and products to reduce greenhouse gases, global warming, “all” relating to the destruction of the coal production and the demand for coal. The very energy saving products that our government is telling us that will produce more jobs than the killing of the coal market and related loss of jobs, are the jobs that the foreign governments say they will take.

There has been much more spent on bailouts and stimulus packages, that could have been spent on medical insurance for half of the people in the USA. Including those who are now subject to lose theirs. What is now about seventeen percent, or so, without medical insurance, will soon become 40-45 percent or more once Cap & Trade takes effect and coal stands still and in place. The very people that were promised “no additional taxes” are the very people that this tax will affect, as well as too many changes in health care may be just as damaging. This is a tax increase! There’s no other way to pay for these legislative proposals, if they are allowed to pass.

Obtain, or provide, health care benefits for those deserving Americans that that don’t have it and deserve it. Most everyone in America agrees, “no one should have to become handicapped, bedfast, or die because they don’t have medical insurance”. Go out on the market and buy, or otherwise, the deserving people healthcare insurance that don’t have it. Those who now have insurance may need this government pushed insurance in just a few months when their jobs vastly disappear. It is difficult at this time to determine how many people may be affected, by the loss on their jobs, once these matters become law.

Coal producing states, and coal producers, are well aware of the underlying factors still being programmed and pushed, on a daily basis against coal production and use. And there is much to be desired from our current democratic representatives in Washington. They backed the current administration 100 percent. One went to the Middle East, while pretending to be saving the world, when all the Anti-Coal Regulations was heating up a few months ago in Washington from the current administration. People in office as long as our representatives have been getting re-elected and going back to Washington ... they should know well in advance when something is coming down against the coal industry, or any other such major industry affecting this State. They should have contacts in these regulatory agencies that will let them know, well in advance, of any adverse action coming from the federal regulators that would have the very least impact on this state. Not to mention the matters plaguing the mining industry in West Virginia for the last several years. They are either in agreement with the administration and czars in Washington, or just playing dead or hiding. They have needed a wakeup call for a very long time. The only way to defeat them in the next general election, is to begin getting rid of them right now. Ask them to step down or tell you what they really can do, or are willing to stand for — other than the next election!

A major danger and factor here, is the idea that nuclear energy is the way to go? When in fact, nuclear energy is what is apt to destroy this world as we know it. This country can’t properly dispose of the waste that nuclear power plants now produce. There is enough danger with what is already available to terrorist today, in the area of materials and products required to produce nuclear (energy) bombs for the terrorist to dig up, or just buy, to make their bombs with.

Windpower could be an answer to a small degree, and supplement what additional electrical power that may be needed and has done fairly well in this State. But “ wind power” is all there is in Washington, and no progress is truly being made for the power of the economy, and the power people of this “Great Nation”. A lot of talk, but no positive results. A lot of promises, for the sole purpose of getting re-elected, with much less, and much worse, being produced, than the promises being made to get re-elected. “Our God given air and atmosphere will take care of itself."

There must be an effort to serve as a wake-up call to anyone who believes cap-and-trade is dead and buried—it is very much alive, and now well rooted. So the Washington Republicans and the Nation’s businesses, as well as most all employers and laborers, remain ever vigilant, preparing to defeat any cap-and-trade energy tax that will cost thousands of jobs, drive up unemployment, slow our economic recovery, put every true American in further debt, and make America less competitive in the global marketplace. Where are all those jobs that this administration has promised? “Green” just won’t get the jobs this nation and State is losing, and will be losing many more jobs and businesses very shortly. The effects are now underway, and are expected to be very costly and devastating very quickly, now with the most recent wars declared on coal by the current Administration. “Much time has been lost elected representatives in Washington... where are you really”?

With the move, and now turning up the heat to halt and review, or otherwise cancel, or let them die for lack of interest, up to 79, or more, existing permits for surface mining in our region .... where have they been? What do our representatives really know and understand about the devastation this major coal producing State is facing with the loss of jobs and business, and along with most everyone’s medical insurance, from loss of jobs alone? Where have they truly been? A large number of jobs are going away. Layoffs, closings, and major business reduction, and many other disastrous results are just as close today, as we have ever seen or known before. It can’t get any better until these representatives do something, or the right people take their places in Washington very soon.

Have they just been putting up smoke screens along with the other Washington bureaucrats? They could have seen the light after the fact, once the global warming czars were being gathered together to begin the siege on West Virginia. As several have said in the past, these people, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall (for the election in 2010), Senator Jay Rockefeller (for the election in 2014), and representatives for Senator Robert C. Byrd, should come to the tables in the coal fields near you, the people of West Virginia, and tell the people the truth about these coal mining issues that is certainly a major factor and a plaguing issue effecting the economy of this Region and State, as well as this Nation. And the very lively-hood of all residents in the USA.

Let’s face it, these representatives are not likely going to truly fight the Administration they insisted on putting into office, totally against the will of the voters of the State of West Virginia. The voters “said no”, our representatives said “come on in – and take over”, even though our representatives knew what the current administration stood for, “there is no way to clean coal” ! It would appear that our representatives said “come on in” – the voters of this State just don’t know what’s best for them.

And one of the biggest question is, what most of us may be very highly suspicious of, are these guys we have in Washington really like the liberals, and really in favor of these unfounded regulations to reduce so-called global warming, coal emissions, stop mountain top mining, and otherwise just stop the production of coal all together, regardless of what that will do to this State. Who really knows at this point? They just will not press on to the major issues, and truly express where they stand, with the fact that West Virginia is facing it’s most major financial crises ever. They have not come forward, to my knowledge, to any favorable degree, to do what they were hired to do regarding the basic economy of this State. And a major part of that should have been telling you the voters that hired them, just what they planned to do for you and this State, under these most devastating matters at the hands of the Washington bureaucrats, or other bureaucrats attacking West Virginia.

Are these representatives going to the meetings and industrial forums that have been underway over the last few months, to tell the industrial leaders where the truly stand with destruction of the coal industry, the resulting closing of businesses, and loss of thousands of jobs?

Cap & Trade Legislation will truly trigger a cascade of new, additional, legislation or regulations that will also crush more smaller businesses and raise the cost of (in addition to electricity) food, gasoline, as well as all consumable products and materials, beyond reason. “This State is under attack”. This State does not have sufficient support from our democratic representatives in Washington that is required to withstand the current attacks and battles against this State. Then where are the answers? Where are our representatives ?

The American people won’t be fooled by the tactics now underway by the current Washington Administration, and they should call instead for an energy policy, which reduces our dependence on foreign oil, creates jobs, and grows our economy. Coal production must remain a major factor in the economical progress of this nation and State.

George L. Mathis

Whitman