Posted on 06/02/2014 2:39:00 PM PDT by PoloSec
Labor unions criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations on carbon emissions from power plants on Monday, highlighting growing tensions between the environmentalist and working class arms of the Democratic Party.
Those tensions have come to the forefront as leading Democrats embrace environmentalist policies backed by billionaire political donors that are generally opposed by members of the party’s rank and file base.
Some labor unions, groups generally considered loyally Democratic, rebelled on Monday after the EPA released its new regulations, which studies have suggested will carry hefty economic costs.
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) president Cecil Roberts blasted the proposal, saying it would leave tens of thousands of the union’s members unemployed.
“The proposed rule … will lead to long-term and irreversible job losses for thousands of coal miners, electrical workers, utility workers, boilermakers, railroad workers and others without achieving any significant reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions,” Roberts said in a statement.
According to a UMWA analysis, Roberts said, the rule will cause 75,000 job losses in the coal sector by 2020, rising to 152,000 by 2035.
“When a U.S. government economic multiplier used to calculate the impact of job losses is applied to the entire economy, we estimate that the total impact will be about 485,000 permanent jobs lost,” Roberts said.
Other studies have also found that the rule will lead to significant job losses. An analysis commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that the regulations will “lead to an average of 224,000 fewer U.S. jobs every year through 2030.”
The regulations also drew fire on Monday from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which warned they “focus solely on the environmental aspect of public policy at the expense of balancing our nation’s economic and energy needs.”
The IBEW cautioned against attempts to reduce carbon emissions “at the expense of a balanced energy portfolio capable of meeting the demands of modern society.”
“The jobs of thousands of working men and women and the well-being of their communities are also worthy of saving,” the union said.
IBEW has previously split with President Barack Obama on key aspects of his energy policy agenda, including the Keystone XL pipeline, which the president has repeatedly refused to approve.
The union has called Keystone “a vital project that would create 20,000 construction and manufacturing jobs, generate $585 million in state and local taxes plus another $5 billion in property taxes and strengthen North America’s energy independence.”
That project has also accentuated divides between the Democratic Party’s environmentalist and working class supporters. A number of labor unions, including IBEW, support the project. However, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer has promised to spend $100 million in favor of candidates who oppose the pipeline despite its massive popularity.
Some unions have blasted the president’s apparent political motives in delaying the pipeline, most recently in mid-April.
“It’s clear the administration needs to grow a set of antlers, or perhaps take a lesson from Popeye and eat some spinach,” the president of the Laborers International Union of North America said at the time.
and they can thank their union leadership for backing the Demo-Rat party. No sympathy. The got what they voted for. TWICE.
The unions are upset. Ha! Obama told them in 2008 what he was going to do. I guess since they knew he is a liar they figured he was lying about shutting down the coal industry.
The union goons and greens will come together under the Marxist flag regardless.
Unions slam Obama for doing exactly what he said he was going to do.
Perhaps some of these union folk would like to learn the language before they vote again.
From 2008:
United Mine Workers of America Endorses Obama
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/labor/umwa052108pr.html
Whats it like to vote against your best economic interests, morons?
Schadenfreude...you voted for him, you own him, punks.
Let’s see them do something about it.
Hey, union thugs: 0bama doesn’t give a crap about you. He got what he wanted from you...twice...and now he won’t even return your calls. Go cry to your mommies.
Regulatory agencies have morphed into the fourth branch of government and are not accountable to the voters. The EPA is the king of the regulators.
If we don’t find a way to reel them in, they will kill us.
HA.....HA.....HA....HA...!!
Well said.
To all unions:
He lied to you like voters, you served his purpose and he f’d you like everybody else. Stop your whinning. You were warned and chose to believe the worlds greatest liar, suck it up you got used and then thrown under the bus.
The democrat party had quit representing the highly paid union worker a long time ago. Don’t know why the unions will still back democrat candidates, nothing there for them anymore. The dems will force your employer out of business, then pat you on the back and say how good they are taking care of you by extended unemployment benefits. (At a fraction of what you were making when employed).
“The union goons and greens will come together under the Marxist flag regardless.”
Time for McConnell to reach out to the unions about how republicans support the energy sector and will continue to do so.
The only ther thing I can think of is Obama is destroying red states with this. Once unemployment starts and then welfare, people who were in unions and voted republican will never do it again.
Hey Unions- Embrace The Suck.
Whaaaa???
You guys act surprised....
Why doesn’t Nobama just cut to the chase here, and start loading West Virginians into cattle cars to be transported to the solar ovens in California?
They are after all, just bitter clingerers and Bible thumpers are they not? I am sure that his science advisors would agree that the world would survive nicely without them in the way anymore...
IF you union guys had a brain you would ask your leadership how having a bunch of people flooding across the borders is going to benefit your job prospects and not just democrat majorities but that is a BIG IF.
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