The Virginian-Pilot has a superb editorial in today’s paper that’s well worth quoting from.
The coal industry still has enormously powerful friends. Gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli – like U.S. Senate candidate George Allen last year – has made fealty to coal a central tenet of his campaign.
It may have nothing to do with the $427,089 Cuccinelli has so far received from the coal industry. Then again, it might. It might also have a lot to do with running against the Environmental Protection Agency, the favorite bugaboo of politicians for whom the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act are plain examples of government meddling.
Cuccinelli’s love for coal certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the health of the folks of Hampton Roads, or the climate change he doesn’t believe in.…
By the way, you know how corrupt Ken Cuccinelli of all people “joked” in the last debate that Terry McAuliffe would change the state motto to “Quid Pro Quo?” The irony here – not that Cooch “gets” irony – is that he’s the “quid pro quo” candidate if there ever was one, from the Bobby Thompson/fake “Navy Vets” charity scam to the Jonnie Williams/Star Scientific scandal, to the $100k he’s taken from an out-of-state natural gas company while his office advised said company on how to rip off SW Virginia landowners, to all the money he receives from the Koch brothers and other polluters (while dutifully carrying out their agenda of gutting environmental protection), etc, etc. For Ken Cuccinelli of all people to joke about “quid pro quo” is just mind boggling, given that he’s the Quid Pro Quo King.
As for coal, Cuccinelli’s “fealty” to his paymaster is not surprising, but what’s disgusting about it is his rabid defense of this dying industry (because of increasing costs, environmental concerns, and most of all competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy) at the expense of the health and economic well being of 8 million Virginians. Oh, and also at the expense of Virginia’s place in the fierce, global competition for a piece of the enormous cleantech market of the 21st century. In short, Cuccinelli’s position would be like someone in the early 20th century fighting tooth and nail against cars, because they might put horse-drawn carriage makers out of business. Dumb. Dumber. Dumber-est.
P.S. See As VA Republicans Cue Coal Hysteria, Here Are a Few Actual Facts for more on Cuccinelli’s energy policy idiocy.
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