Coal Industry Group Launches Radio Campaign to Oppose Proposed Energy Tax

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 20, 2005 /PRNewswire

Americans for Coal Jobs (ACJ), a group committed to protecting jobs in the coal industry and allied industries, launched a targeted radio campaign today directing Ohioans to urge Ohio Senator Mike DeWine to oppose a new "energy tax" amendment to federal energy legislation working its way through Congress. The Ohio campaign is part of regional ad buy in segments of several heavy coal-producing states.

The ads targeting Sen. DeWine's constituents, which will air on stations in Columbus, Cincinnati and Wheeling, West Virginia, warn that a proposed climate change program that some members of the U.S. Senate seek to add to pending federal energy legislation is little more than a $60 billion tax on energy consumers and coal producers. According to industry estimates, the proposed tax on energy production will burden coal companies and other fossil energy producers with up to $60 billion in additional costs by 2025, which in turn will stunt economic growth and lead to job losses and higher energy prices for consumers. The amendment, which is being offered by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) also would transform the U.S. Department of Energy into a new central planning bureaucracy that would determine not only energy policy but also future Gross National Product growth and future profit margins and estimated losses for much of the U.S. energy industry

"America needs the energy bill, not an energy tax," said Mike Carey, executive director of Americans for Coal Jobs. "Sen. Bingaman's proposed amendment is not the solution to concerns about climate change. All it will do is create significant new obstacles to economic growth and thwart much-needed efforts to increase domestic energy supplies and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources. It's critical that this $60 billion energy tax amendment be rejected."

Coal currently provides more than half of all electricity consumed in the United States and approximately 87 percent of Ohio's electricity.

SOURCE Americans for Coal Jobs

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