Raese Maneuvers To Support Coal Executives, Not Coal Workers
Yesterday, John Raese won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat left empty by Robert Byrd. How did he edge out his Republican rivals? By gaining support from coal industry executives.
Raese gained that support by promising to “unshackle” the big coal companies from safety regulations, just months after one of the biggest coal mine disasters in recent history, at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine. That position helps coal’s big investors, and it helps the top executives, but it does so at the expense of putting coal miners in harm’s way.
John Raese isn’t stopping at throwing West Virginia coal workers under the bus. He’s willing to cast aside the planet’s entire ecosystem in his pursuit of personal power. Raese refuses to acknowledge the massive mountain of evidence that carbon dioxide and other gases related to the coal industry are related to global warming. Raese suggests that there’s been some kind of giant conspiracy going on, involving scientists all over the world, saying that, “the greenhouse gas concern is just a ruse to justify bringing more tax revenue into the federal treasury for Democratic pet projects.”
Why would scientists in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia help to invent evidence of anthropogenic global warming just in order to assist Democrats in passing certain budget items here in the United States? Raese’s climate conspiracy theory hasn’t grappled with that simple question yet, but Raese seems to presume that he won’t have to connect those dots. Raese’s insinuation that global warming science is all just a big hoax will work, if West Virginia voters don’t bother to educate themselves about the issue in any detail. Raese’s Senate campaign has placed its bet firmly in favor of the ignorance of the West Virginia electorate.
