Portman Questions Administration on How Policies Will Impact Ohio Jobs and Energy Prices
Press Release
In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) questioned the Administration regarding how its policies impact Ohio jobs and energy prices. Portman pressed Department of Interior Assistant Secretary Janice Schneider about potential job losses resulting from the Administration's policies impacting the coal industry.
"I think we all agree on this panel that we need to take steps to protect the environment. The question is balance. And the question is the economy, what's the impact on jobs in particular. And our concern in Ohio of course is that we are a state that is dependent on coal for our electricity, about 70% of our electricity comes from coal. We also mine coal, we move coal. And we see in a state that depends greatly on the coal industry for jobs that this will have an impact that will be very negative on jobs and production.
"Your Office of Surface Mining has said that it's going to cost between 41 and 509 jobs annually. Mr. Quinn has an analysis showing that it will result in 40,000 to 78,000 coal miners losing their jobs. That's a pretty big disparity.
"I have been with some of our miners over the last year I was down 300 feet below with some miners recently talking about the impact of this rule. I will tell you, I don't know about your model mines, but on the real mines there is a deep concern. A concern about what will happen to them and their families, their communities in areas of our state that already have relatively high unemployment.
"We look at this as another example of where the overreach is causing more problems for our economy, specifically jobs and electricity costs in Ohio, than it needs to that is our concern with this we need to be sure that we are using the right figures and that we are approaching this in a smart way."
Source