At a press conference yesterday, two members of the Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC) invoked God’s name in regards to the commission’s opposition to the new coal-emission regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The PSC is opposing the new regulations, which look to reduce carbon emissions by around 30 percent over the next 16 years, calling them “an assault on our way of life,” and saying that they are an attempt by the Obama Administration to eliminate coal-industry jobs.
“We will not stand for what they are doing to our way of life in Alabama,” PSC President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh said. “We will take our fight to the EPA.” Cavanaugh also said she hoped “all the citizens of Alabama will be in prayer that the right thing will be done.”
Joining her in calling upon God was PSC commissioner-elect Chip Beeker, who said that since God created the coal in Alabama, the federal government shouldn’t adopt regulations that go against God’s plan.
“Who has the right to take what God’s given a state?” he said.
Apparently any irony in the fact that Alabama’s coal industry itself is taking the coal that God created and using it to harm the Earth, which they would also believe God created, was lost on the PSC.
PSC Commissioner Jeremy Oden expressed concern that the EPA has underestimated the economic impact having to reduce carbon emissions will have on Alabama, and believes that the EPA’s proposal “represents an overreach on the part of the Obama administration.”
Paul Reynolds, who is, unsurprisingly, an Alabama representative to the Republican National Committee, said the Obama administration should be focused on matters other than coal.
“The Obama administration should be concerned about a potential world at war instead of something dumb, like a war on coal,” he said.
Given that Alabama is on the list of top-10 states that import coal, maybe the PSC should spend more time worrying about the $1 billion the state spends every year on coal, and less time on what God wants the federal government to do.
