MOUNDSVILLE - Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry began his campaign stop in the Wheeling area early this morning by going 900 feet below ground in the McElroy Mine No. 10 of Consolidation Coal in Moundsville.
Kerry met with officials of the United Mine Workers of America and spoke with miners during a 30-minute trip down into the mine to get a view of what miners on the job encounter. The mine visit was an opportunity for Kerry to showcase his proposals to utilize technology to burn coal in a cleaner way that is safe on the environment while helping to promote the use of coal as a source of energy.
"We've got to get scrubbers on some of those companies (that burn coal) to help them burn clean," Kerry said to a coal miner.
The coal policy of Kerry involves investing in technology to make coal burn cleaner as one way to help keep coal mining jobs in America.
Before going down into the mine, Cecil Roberts, international president of the UMW, met with Kerry to officially present him with his union's endorsement. Roberts said that last week the various UMW Coal Miner Political Action Committees from around the country as well as the UMW executive committee voted unanimously to endorse Kerry.
A prepared statement by Roberts said one of the primary reasons for the UMW endorsement of Kerry's campaign is because, "they want someone in office who can end what they say has been a recent systematic rollback of health and safety protection for working coal miners by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration."
Roberts also gave Kerry a gift of a replica of a miner's lamp used in earlier times. When Roberts told Kerry that today was the beginning of turkey season Kerry said, "If you would have told me today was turkey season I'd be out (hunting) with you." rest of story
John Kerry was in Wheeling today, promising to bring new jobs to West Virginia. But that's the problem with Kerry, the Democratic Party's candidate for president. Like so many liberals, promises come easy to him. Keeping them, particularly to residents of the Ohio Valley, is a different story.
Northern Panhandle and East Ohio residents remember all too well the promises made by Kerry's ideological soulmates, ex-President Bill Clinton and ex-Vice President Al Gore. They, too, assured area voters - most particularly, steelworkers - that they could feel our pain and would do something about it.
What they did was to watch even more pain inflicted on the steel industry, in the form of laid-off workers by the thousands during the eight years of Clinton-Gore.
President Bush, while running for election four years ago, pledged that he would help steelworkers. Many of them voted for him.
But Bush kept his promise. He imposed stiff tariffs on certain imported steel products to give American workers breathing room. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel recovered from bankruptcy on Bush's watch.
It's true that, a few months ago, Bush was forced to rescind the tariffs. Kerry has criticized him for that and promised that, if elected, he'll help.
How? Kerry has admitted that, if elected, he would not reimpose tariffs. He has put forth no realistic plan to aid the domestic steel industry. He has merely promised that he will do so.
Promises, promises. We've heard them before. Kerry can't expect to win votes in this area with more of them. link
"Kerry was at least 45 minutes late"
Contrast that to the three visits we have had in our area (Hershey/Harrisburg) from President Bush. He was spot on time each time.
Last year, Kerry voted for (while Byrd was voting against) the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act, which would move the U.S. toward the Kyoto global warming protocol. The EIA estimated the bill would reduce coal's share of electricity from 50 percent down to 11 percent, eliminating 50,000 coal industry jobs.
What a load of bull. I'll bet Kerry never even passed a Hunter Safety Class or ever bought a hunting licence. Come to think of it, did Hillary? She went duck hunting once. Maybe someone should investigate the public records, it would be very embarrassing if they were caught poaching! LOL!
Thanks so much for the FReep. We will Freep him if he comes out here to flyover country.
The coal policy of Kerry involves investing in technology to make coal burn cleaner as one way to help keep coal mining jobs in America.
Yeah, sure, that'll get people to burn more coal. You gonna pay for the scrubbers, Mr. Kerry? 'Cause if'n you ain't, there will still not be a financial incentive to switch to coal. (We already have scrubber technology, by the way. A lot people opt for oil or gas because it is cheaper than installing all of the clap trap that you have to have to burn coal. Oil and gas are a lot easier to transport and to burn. Until the price goes up quite a bit on those two commodities, companies won't switch back to coal. But the price of oil and gas has been going up. If the prices go up enough, some companies may switch to coal and then Kerry can claim it was the government supporting development of scrubber technology that made it all possible. What a bunch of baloney.)