Santorum Responds To Obama's War On Coal

Verona, PA - Former presidential candidate, former U.S. Senator, and Chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum issued the following statement in response to the Obama Administration's latest attempt to destroy the American coal industry through overreaching carbon regulations.

Rick Santorum said: "President Obama's newly proposed regulations are a sad continuation of this Administration's War on Coal. At a time when many of the World's energy rich regions are engulfed in conflict, we should be focused more than ever on energy independence. Our nation's rich fuel reserves, and in particular our domestic coal industry, should be a cornerstone of efforts to reach energy independence."

"If the President truly hopes to get the American economy working again, he should tear down regulatory barriers rather than erecting new walls that will only raise electricity prices and stop the growth of American manufacturing. Instead President Obama has chosen to institute new regulations that will have no measurable impact on reducing global CO2 concentrations and will likely halt the development of new coal-fueled plants by requiring unrealistic carbon standards," Santorum continued.

"As a product of southwest Pennsylvania's coal-fields, I have seen first-hand the tremendous benefit the coal industry has had on the American economy. Coal is not just an energy source that lights our cities or critical to keystones of our manufacturing sector like the steel industry, it provides good paying jobs directly and indirectly to millions of Americans. We need to embrace the coal industry that has been key to making America the greatest industrialized economy in the world, not destroy it as the President has proposed," Santorum concluded.