Rep. Kelly Reiterates Open Invitation to President Obama to Visit Western PA Coal Mine

White House rejects Rep. Kelly’s initial offer to tour coal mine,
meet Americans most threatened by EPA’s war on coal

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) issued the following statement today regarding his open invitation to President Obama to visit a coal mine in Western Pennsylvania, which the White House has officially declined. The visit would have been personally arranged by Rep. Kelly and was meant to give the president an opportunity to meet the workers whose jobs are most directly threatened by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new Clean Power Plan proposal. In response to the plan’s announcement, Rep. Kelly and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced the Coal Country Protection Act in the House and Senate respectively. Rep. Kelly’s original invitation to the president can be viewed here.

“My invitation to President Obama will remain on the table until he reconsiders his decision and chooses to see firsthand where ‘the workhorse of the US power system’ comes from—and how it’s directly threatened by his policies. More importantly, I believe the president should have an opportunity to meet and speak with the hardworking men and women whose livelihoods are most in jeopardy under his administration’s ideological crusade against coal. From providing thousands of jobs to keeping energy bills low to keeping American manufacturing competitive, the benefits of this abundant energy source are far too important to my constituents and to our country to let be taken away by out-of-touch operators inside the Washington bubble.”

ICYMI: On Monday, August 4, 2014, The Wall Street Journal published a guest op-ed written by Rep. Kelly on the economic danger of the EPA's anti-coal regulations proposed under President Obama titled, “Pushing Back Against Obama's War on Coal.”

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