Recently, President Barack Obama visited Pennsylvania touting his plans to create jobs. He should have remembered that he'd have a lot fewer jobs to create if he wasn't so busy killing jobs with his plan to halt the use of coal for electricity generation.
By throttling the utility industry with over-the-top air quality regulations, the Obama administration is slashing coal demand. That will eventually mean the end of many of the 52,000 Pennsylvania jobs built around the coal industry and their payrolls of $3.5 billion that are the lifeblood of many local economies.
The loss of coal as a power generating fuel is sure to drive up electricity prices in Pennsylvania, where traditionally about half our power is produced using coal.
For someone feeling a tight election in November, you'd think these things would matter. Come November, they might just provide the margin needed to write him off as president.
August C. Stickel
Altoona
