Coal-related rallies planned in state, Washington, D.C.
Proponents of coal will have two opportunities to put on their rally caps next week.
The first coal-related rally will begin at 11 a.m. Monday at the Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh. Then afterward, a caravan of buses will head to Washington, D.C., for a rally and congressional hearing the next day.
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, will attend Monday’s event in the courthouse courtyard. He will be joined by John Pippy, president of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance; Ray Ventrone, business manager of Boilermakers Local 154; and building tradesmen, coal miners and coal industry leaders.
Tuesday’s “Rally for American Energy Jobs” will begin at 11 a.m. on the U.S. Capitol grounds, where Murphy is scheduled to address miners, tradesmen and coal-sector workers.
At 2 p.m., Murphy will convene a subcommittee hearing titled “EPA’s Regulatory Threat to Affordable, Reliable Energy: The Perspective of Coal Communities.” Pippy and Ventrone will testify at the hearing in the 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.
“Coal is part of the fabric of Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Murphy said in a statement. “The (Environmental Protection Agency’s) ongoing ‘War on Coal’ has taken a toll not just on the livelihood of all our local miners, electricians, welders and boilermakers, but the prosperity of our Southwestern Pennsylvania communities.
“Congress will hear how families and local towns are impacted when a plant shuts down, electricity rates spike, or a mine is shuttered because of overreaching federal regulations.”
The Mitchell and Hatfield’s Ferry coal-fueled power plants, in Washington and Greene counties, were closed permanently Oct. 18, costing 380 their jobs.