Paul Driessen Quotes

The Obama administration has already imposed burdensome regulations - for instance, the sprawling Clean Power Plan aimed at wiping out the coal industry - that will raise the cost of energy and put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work.

If you look at the casualties, the federal government isn't waging a War on Coal. If anything, coal is waging a war on us.

I certainly would like to see the war on coal come to an end.

I'd like to say that right now, in the last few years, the Democrats have been closer - have been more pro-environment. The coal industry is pretty well entrenched in the Republican Party and that's one of the things that we need to phase out.

We cannot afford the EPA's continued expansion of red tape that is slowing economic growth and threatening to entangle millions of small businesses.

I will use my position as chairman emeritus on the Energy and Commerce Committee to try to bring some common sense to EPA regulations.

Republicans are for clean water, clean air, and clean energy. We are not for taxing people out of their house, home and business to pay for it. And that is the fundamental difference between the Democrats and Republicans on this issue.

Those who buy in to global warming wish to drastically curb human economic and industrial activities, regardless of the consequences for people, especially the poor.

As Oklahoma attorney general, it is not my job to formulate or implement Oklahoma's plan, but it is my job to preserve Oklahoma's right to do so - particularly when the Clean Air Act so clearly recognizes that Oklahomans, and not federal bureaucrats, are best situated to determine Oklahoma energy and environmental policies.

The climate-change industrial complex pontificates that the U.S. has to stop using coal to save the planet. But even if the U.S. cut our own coal production to zero, China and India are building hundreds of coal plants. By suspending American coal production, we are merely transferring jobs out of the U.S.

Nothing could do more harm to America's national security than a carbon-restricted, depressed economy that would make funding our military impossible.

In Iraq, I listened to David Petraeus speak every day about how we had to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure and protect it. But, if we're going to go trillions of dollars in debt over Iraq, why can't we go billions of dollars in debt and make every single coal-producing plant clean in West Virginia?

The coal industry in West Virginia, when it is down, people can't buy cars; people can't eat in restaurants. Everything suffers.

Stacks of job-killing Executive Orders and regulations from the Obama era need to be repealed or rolled back. At the top of the stack is the Clean Power Plan, which has put tens of thousands of American coal miners out of work.

Cap-and-trade is a dangerous policy fraught with the potential for significant corruption, and it would hurt my constituents and our economy by raising energy costs.

The fact is that any carbon legislation is designed to make us not use coal. So if you're a state that has a lot of coal, you're going to get hammered.

I refuse to stand by and watch as Sen. Tester tries to implement his radical environmental agenda here and kill our coal industry and destroy thousands of Montana jobs.

The Obama administration's EPA ruling to cut carbon emissions at power plants is a direct affront to workers in states like Alabama, which not only rely upon coal-fired plants to generate most of their electricity but are also home to thousands of coal industry jobs.

The policy of the Obama administration is to employ regulatory strangulation to drive up the price of energy. This must be exposed and opposed for what it is: a policy of forced economic contraction.

While I have strongly and consistently supported the Clean Power Plan, and continue to do so, I cannot and will not support a proposal for a cap-and-trade system.

In terms of energy sectors, we need coal; we need oil; we need gas; we need uranium. And we need to have rules and regulations that allow those companies to stay in business.

The carbon fuels industry-big oil and coal-have a 50-year lease on the Republican Party and they are drilling it for everything it's worth.

The EPA's [Clean Power Plan] is another example of Washington's lack of understanding when it comes to rural and Western energy issues. I oppose this new rule because it hurts my district, which has four coal-fired plants that power Arizona's big cities, small towns, businesses and residences. These plants also provide good-paying jobs in our tribal and rural regions.

Hillary Clinton wants to put all the miners out of business.

Not using fossil fuels is tantamount to not using energy. It is economic suicide and eco-manslaughter.