By State Senator Phillip Wheeler (R-Pikeville)

Every election cycle there always seems to be yet another liberal politician with their eyes firmly set on continuing the War on Coal. There’s never any consideration for our livelihoods or how their political agenda has devastated our communities. But in 2024, it’s not just one person running for President that poses a threat to our region, it’s two – Joe Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As with all Democrats, we’ve come to expect this level of disdain for the hardworking men and women who keep the lights on.

Obama attempted to implement his Clean Power Plan which would have closed more power plants, killed jobs, and increased the cost of electricity for millions of people.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton proudly declared, “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” during her failed bid for the Presidency.

Biden during his 2020 campaign said, “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America” and in April of this year he attempted to make good on that promise. His EPA set out a new attack on 200 coal-fired power plants that according to The New York Times would effectively “end the use of coal to keep the lights on in America.”

Kennedy, though, poses the most significant threat to our region out of all of them. As an environmental attorney, he has over four decades of experience targeting the coal industry and our very way of life.

He’s called the coal industry a “criminal enterprise”.

He said coal brings “poverty” and destroys jobs.

He even compared coal power to slavery stating that the only reason we have coal is because of “corporate cronyism capitalism.”

Between Biden and Kennedy, there may be a gap in age and mental acuity, but there’s certainly no daylight between the two men when it comes to driving a knife through the heart of coal country.

Luckily, not only do we have a champion in President Trump, someone who proudly stands with the men and women who keep our lights on, but we have someone who has already shown what he will do as President for our region.

During his time as President, Trump ended Obama’s Clean Power Plan, led the way in leaving the Paris Climate Accords, and put in place leaders at the EPA to tackle the hundreds of unnecessary and overburdensome regulations that were holding the coal industry back.

As someone who has spent his life in Appalachia standing up for the brave souls who put their lives on the line to supply us with energy resources, I know firsthand how important it is to have leaders in office who will fight for our communities in Eastern Kentucky.

It’s why during my time as an attorney I stand up for our coal miners and continue that work as a legislator. I’ve supported legislation to preserve coal-fired power generation despite limousine liberal attempts to destroy coal jobs and sponsored legislation to fix the coal workers’ pneumoconiosis fund. Our elected representatives should fight for the people, not actively work to make their lives and that of their community worse.

This election, two names on the ballot for President actively want to not only continue, but to expand the War on Coal. Their policies would kill thousands of jobs and would cause electricity rates to skyrocket putting an even heavier burden on Kentuckians who are financially struggling through Biden’s self-created inflation crisis.

Joe Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would both actively fight our men and women who have helped build America and gave us the energy we need in our everyday lives through the coal industry.

This November, the only clear option to make sure neither is successful, is to re-elect President Trump and a pro-coal Congress who will fight for us and not against us.