Barack Obama on occasion boasts how he connected with southern Illinois voters during his 2004 senate run.During that campaign, Obama made a promise to revive the moribund coal mining industry in that part of the state.
Shortly after getting sworn in as a senator, Obama had his chance to do something. A bill called the Clear Skies Act would've loosened emission standards of power plants burning coal--and its passage would've been a shot in the arm for the Illinois coal.
He was probably just polishing the "Obama Brand," the new senator publicly toyed with voting for it. But Obama voted the party line--and if he didn't break a campaign promise, he certainly let down some southern Illinois voters.
Two years later, Obama had a chance to make good on his pledge. From a July Washington Post article:
After co-sponsoring legislation earlier this year for billions of dollars in subsidies for liquefied coal, Obama more recently began qualifying his support in ways that have left both environmentalists and coal industry officials unsure where he stands. His shift has helped shape this month's Senate debate over how to reduce both dependence on foreign oil and carbon dioxide emissions; on Tuesday, he voted against one proposal to boost liquefied coal and for a more narrowly worded one. Both failed.
More broadly, Obama's contortions on coal point to the limits of the role he likes to assume, that of a unifier who can appeal across traditional lines and employ a "new kind of politics" to solve problems. In reaching out to the coal industry, some observers say, he may have been trying to show that he is a different sort of Democrat, but the gesture had the look of old-style politicking and put him in a corner, where he wound up alienating some on both sides of the issue.
Some in Illinois view its vast, but heavy-on-the-sulphur brand of coal as black gold.
In Nevada there is real gold to mine. Which is leading Obama into more mining trouble.
Obama opposes repealing a 135 year-old law that allows companies to mine for gold and other minerals on public lands without paying the federal government for the usage--environmentalists call it mis-uage--of the land. The mining industry of course opposses the bill, as does Billy Vassiliadis, a Nevada power broker and lobbyist for mining interests.
And he's an advisor to the Obama campaign.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), son of a miner, opposes the bill too.
Both the Obama campaign and Vassiliadis say they've never discussed the bill, which would compel mining firms to pay royalties for the use of the land, as well as force them to pay up for clean-up efforts, install enviromenntal controls on mining, and ban bargain sales of public land to miners.
In addition to oppposing the royalty requirements on the mining firms, Obama said the bill, "places a significant burden on the mining industry and could have a significant impact on jobs."
Is this what Obama's "new kinds of politics" is supposed to be?
Related post:
Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith
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