Staff Reports
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A delegation from the Citizens for Coal, Friends and Families of Coal and The COALition traveled to the U.S. Capitol approximately two weeks ago on behalf of FACES of Coal to show support for the “Stop the War on Coal Act.”
Citizens for Coal President Roger Horton, co-chair of The COALition, Citizens for Coal Vice President Dennis Adkins and Friends and Families of Coal Activist and House of Delegates candidate Joshua Nelson (who was recently endorsed by both the West Virginia Coal Association and Citizens for Coal), made the trip to Washington to fight for the passage of this bill and participated in a news conference before the House overwhelmingly passed the bill.
Their travels to Washington were an essential move that helped to pass this legislation through the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill, which combines several previously, passed House bills into a single bill that would essentially bring the Obama War on Coal to an end, now goes to the U.S. Senate, which has refused to consider the bills individually to this point. Horton, Adkins, and Nelson served notice on the Senate and on President Obama to pass the bill and bring the War on Coal to end, or they would marshal their support groups to take their refusal to act door-to-door and hold them accountable for their inaction.
Nelson said that “For too long we have had “do-nothing Representation” that has refused to stand up and do anything to stop our jobs from fleeting.
“We absolutely refuse to throw up our hands and tell citizens that there is nothing ‘We the People’ can do, because that is simply a lie,” Nelson said. “Our retirees are in a position that they may lose their pensions, our current working miners are being laid off, and our county has an 11.9 percent unemployment rate now.That is the highest in the state. This is unacceptable!”














