On the recordDecember 2, 2015
As we hear talk of bills on the floor and international climate meetings with the world community, I want to bring to my colleagues' attention and to you, Mr. Speaker, the real destruction that is going on in the fossil fuel areas of our Nation, one that I represent, the Illinois coal basin. I want to start by quoting the mayor of a town named Galatia in two articles from the paper called The Southern. In a November 5 article, he basically says: ``Without the coal mines, we are going to be in dire straits. That's all there is to it.'' The mayor is referring to what we have come to the floor numerous times to talk about, and you actually heard it from my colleague today, the war on coal, the intent by this administration to take coal out of the portfolio of electricity generation--and, really, any other fossil fuel they can get their hands on, whether it be crude oil or whether they will then move to natural gas. Later on, the mayor, in another article from the same paper, on November 12, says because the New Era Mine in Galatia is now going to close, this closure, `` `It impacts everybody,' said David Harrawood, the village's mayor. `It doesn't just impact coal miners. It impacts trucking businesses, the stores, all their vendors. It's not just one segment. Down here, we're all tied together.' '' So that is the human toll of the war on coal.…
