By Erica Martinson
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s entrance into the 2014 West Virginia Senate race could keep coal in the conversation despite a disastrous 2012 run for the coal industry.
In a speech Monday announcing her bid to take the seat that Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller has held since 1984, Capito pledged to “continue to stand up against the EPA’s dangerous and unconstitutional crusade to dictate our nation’s energy policy to the detriment of West Virginians.”
“We are a state rich in natural resources with our coal reserves, natural gas and even oil,” she said. “They have played a major role in the course of our state and driven our economy.”
Capito “is leading the effort to stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of regulatory injunction and bureaucratic over-reach against the coal and natural gas industry,” her campaign website boasts. The site goes on to denounce “an overbearing EPA that is set on crushing West Virginia’s energy production.”
The “war on coal” was a mantra for nearly all the candidates in this year’s elections in West Virginia — with the battle turning into a contest on who could hate EPA more.
Capito received an immediate coal endorsement in the state, and there’s already a “Coal Miners for Capito” Facebook group. Its chairman, Roger Horton, describes himself as “a lifelong coal miner, a member of the UMWA, [and] a proud Democrat” in a statement posted on the page Monday.
“While we thank Sen. Rockefeller for his service over his long career, we believe he has lost his way and no longer reflects the views of the people of this state,” Horton said in the statement. “His recent statements on coal and coal mining show his loyalty is to Obama and not with West Virginia coal miners.”
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