Two stories on Huntington post tonight on business, and specifically the Coal industry run amok.
In Fear Is Why Workers in Red States Vote Against Their Economic Self-Interest Robert Reich writes that he thinks is is the damaged economy and other fears that keep red staters voting against their own self interests to re-elect men like Mr McConnell to "Represent them."
And on the front page, Kate Sheppard writes in Mitch McConnell Aims To Torpedo EPA Carbon Rules With Obscure Legislative Tool about McConnell using an obscure legislative tool to stop EPA regulations of the coal industry in it's tracks.
On Thursday, McConnell announced that he is filing a "resolution of disapproval" to stop the EPA "from imposing its anti-coal regulation."
The senator wants to employ the little-used Congressional Review Act of 1996, or CRA, which sets up an expedited process for Congress to overturn regulations from the executive branch. The only time the law has been wielded successfully was in 2001, when Republicans used it to block new ergonomics rules from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued during the Clinton years. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tried to employ the law in 2010 to block the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health, but the measure failed (despite drawing yes votes from six Democrats).
Follow me below the fold to see why I think this is a golden opportunity to bring several issues to the forefront and end Mr McConnell's career in the bargain.
So.
Mitch McConnell is proud of his rerecord of protecting the coal industry from regulation at any and every turn.
Now the very WEEK that many of his constituents are being poisoned by a chemical spill up river from them by a company that has probably broken every safety law that exists for storage of that chemical. A chemical so poorly studied that the only reason we know that the chemical is safe, is because the industry says it is.
Many many of the bills and regulations that might have stopped this mess were blocked by the very same Mitch McConnell.
As it so happens, he is being primaryed, and after he comes out of that bloody battle, Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has been making a strong showing.
Why I believe this is an opportunity:
I am getting constant emails from this site, and democrats of all sorts asking me to sign petitions, write letters, call into districts and whatever.
If we could organize a campaign top remind the voters of Louisville and other Kentucky cities that are drawing in contaminated drinking water, that their own Representative is proud of the fact that he is one of the main architects of the lack of regulatory and enforcement protects that undoubtedly allowed this spill in the first place.
Remember this chemical is so poorly studied they have yet to find an expert that can even guess how toxic it might be or what a "safe" exposure might be.
This might finally be the issue we need to break the conservative bubble in Kentucky and boot out one of the worst Representatives in the game right now.
Happy letter writing.
Mr Tek