Jim Martin: “Obama’s war on coal is a war on the elderly – his policies will turn off the lights and pull the plug on our nation’s most vulnerable.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) — Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization with over 7.2 million supporters, today lashed out against the Obama Administration’s release this morning of new environmental rules aimed at America’s power plants, with a special focus on restrictions to the coal industry. Martin called the new rule “a war on seniors and our nation’s most vulnerable” and pointed to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce showing the rules will cost Americans $17 billion a year more to pay their electricity bill, and hit the economy with $50 billion a year in new costs.

“Once again the Obama Administration is pulling the emergency brake on the economy, and it is America’s most vulnerable, including seniors on diminishing incomes, who will be thrown through the windshield,” said Martin.

“Coal is a vital part of America’s energy mix, and the radical environmentalists at the EPA are doing everything they can to pull the plug. Their regulations will make all Americans pay more for energy, which will be especially brutal for the working poor and seniors of limited means to pay their electric bill. Seniors of limited means are least able to absorb the increasing costs of energy and electricity, as we’ve seen from far too many stories of elderly dying in their homes or requiring hospitalization during severe weather conditions. Clearly the President and the EPA are willing to gamble with the lives of seniors for the sake of their left-wing ideology.”

A study of the Administration’s new power plant emissions rules revealed job losses of 442,000 in 2022, and a loss of 40% of electrical capacity generated by coal in the next 15 years.

“These new rules will benefit no one, and do nothing to address the fact that developing nations like China and India will double their emissions in short order. Meanwhile Obama will take pride in shuttering power plants, throwing hundreds of thousands out of work, and siphoning more money out of the pockets of struggling seniors trying to stay safe and comfortable in their own homes. It’s shocking that the President cares so little about these struggling Americans and is so eager to pull the plug on the energy we all depend on.”

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