(Freedom.news) “Reds” was a term used to describe communists who were aligned with the Soviet Union and its authoritarian policies during the Cold War. Today, many of communism’s ideological soul mates can be found in the Left-wing “green” movement which is infested with radicals who are more concerned about phony “global warming/climate change” than they are about whether you are able to earn a decent living.
“There was a time in America—and it wasn’t even so long ago—that liberals actually cared about working class people. They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions (i.e., raising the minimum wage) but at least their heart was in the right place,” writes Stephen Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow for the Project for Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation.
“Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago. The radical leftwing environmentalists took control,” Moore continued. “These are people who care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class. The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these radicals and now they—and all of us—are paying a heavy price.”
One of the industries that has been ravaged by the green/red movement is the coal industry. Just last week, Moore notes, another coal giant – Peabody Energy Corp. – declared bankruptcy, the same fate that befell Arch Coal Inc., Alpha Natural Resources Inc., and other coal producers who have filed for court-ordered bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11.
“Peabody has stated that the lower cost of natural gas may have been a factor in their decline, and I am all for market competition,” Moore wrote, “but this isn’t a result of free market creative destruction. This was largely a policy strategy by the White House and green groups.”
Clean Power Plant rules issued by President Obama’s EPA were designed to force many of these coal companies (and coal-fired plants) out of business, and that’s precisely what is happening. And while you may personally find the use of cheap coal for the production of power offensive, these were good-paying jobs in parts of the country that have been devastated by the lousy Obama economy – and now those jobs are disappearing, as are the prospects for a better life for the American families affected by these company closures.
“Ideas have consequences. Obama has succeeded in decimating whole towns dependent on coal—in Wyoming, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois,” Moore notes, adding:
Progressive liberals don’t seem to care that an estimated 31,000 coal miners, truckers, engineers, construction workers and others have lost their job since 2009 as a result of this global warming fanaticism. Another 5,000 or so could be given pink slips at Peabody.
To the left, the families whose lives are ruined are collateral damage to achieve their utopian dream of saving the planet. The Stalinists who now run the green movement believe the ends justify the ruthless means.
And of course, investors in coal have been equally decimated. Since 2009 the coal industry has lost tens of billions of dollars, and much of that loss has affected union 401(k) retirement plans.
What’s really maddening about all of this is that according to the government’s own EPA, the air we breathe today is cleaner than it’s ever been, with emissions of sulfur, lead, carbon dioxide and smog from coal plants having fallen 50 to 90 percent over the past four decades. Oh, and for the uninitiated, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant – we have to have it in our atmosphere so that life on our planet doesn’t end.
Not only that, but the greenies ought to think about what it is they’re really accomplishing – other than destroying American industries and jobs. For every coal plant that shuts down in the U.S., China and India are building 10, writes Moore. In addition, our coal is much cleaner and our environmental regulations much stricter than those in the other two countries.
In terms of coal, the U.S. is like the “Saudi Arabia” of global coal supply. We have something like 500 years’ worth of it in the ground, meaning we could corner the global coal market bringing wealth and prosperity to our people. But no; radical green/reds insist we impoverish ourselves rather than develop smarter ways to utilize a plentiful, affordable resource (all while complaining about their monthly electric bills, most likely).
But Republicans have much to answer for, as well. They have held a majority in the House for five years and have controlled all of Congress since January 2015, but they refuse to act against the EPA and reign it in.
Combine what the green/reds are doing to the energy sector with other land use regulations and you can begin to see why poll after poll shows Americans care much more about jobs and opportunity than phony baloney “climate change.”
It isn’t too late to revive the coal industry and others affected by all of this lunatic activism, but that will mean putting jobs first, Moore writes – something both parties claim to want.
More:
- It’s no longer a question: Americans HAVE lost control of the political process and the ruling elite couldn’t care less
- Uncle Sam’s growing appetite for our earnings is transforming America into a modern-day feudal state
- It Begins: Virgin Isles AG first to subpoena records from group skeptical of climate change ‘science’
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