Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com

In a candid moment while running for president, Barack Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle, “under my plan…electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Last week, the Obama administration moved to make that a reality, using its rule by executive fiat to punish the coal industry. The action comes as the president is halting offshore oil drilling and threatening one state alone with millions of dollars in lost revenue. His most recent action was “unprecedented,” could kill jobs during a recession, and comes as heating oil and gasoline prices are rising.

Obama’s latest environmentalist imbroglio is his declaration of war on the coal industry. Last week, the EPA revoked the mining permit of Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. The EPA granted the permit in 2007. Since then, Arch Coal has complied with all of the agency’s terms and made millions of dollars of investments in the hard-hit Appalachian state.

The EPA reversed itself last week, revoking its validly granted permit and calling into question whether it would honor any of its prior obligations. Its pretext was the company’s use of mountaintop removal mining, which it called “destructive and unsustainable. However, it was known the mine would use this procedure when the EPA granted the permit four years ago.

The mine would have employed 250 people and harvested more than 40 million tons of coal, over 15 years.

West Virginia’s lawmakers are rightly incensed. Newly elected Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s statement read in part: “According to the EPA, it doesn’t matter if you did everything right, if you followed all of the rules. Why? They just change the rules.” Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, called the revocation, “a staged event to reward a core constituency that doesn’t want any coal mining or coal plants, no matter the cost to West Virginia or our nation.”

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller told President Obama in a letter that his action “needlessly throws other permits into a sea of uncertainty at a time of great economic distress.”

Industry leaders echoed his concern. “Every road project, construction project or mine site that has received valid CWA 404 permits in the past is now in jeopardy of having that permit vetoed or revoked,” said Bryan Brown, executive director of the Foundation for American Coal Energy. The crippling handicap of uncertainty harms our economy, undermines confidence in the government, and keeps industry executives from making additional investments in energy exploration.

Which was the point. Obama is acting in a lawless manner to introduce uncertainty and stop business from finding additional natural resources, because they want to use skyrocketing energy prices to reduce our nation’s carbon footprint.

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