60 Plus Association’s Jim Martin: “Higher energy costs will literally kill low-income seniors. ‘Dirty’ Coal Better Than No Coal.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) – 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the most prominent conservative seniors advocacy group in the nation, today blasted the Obama Administration for proposing new EPA regulations on ozone that would cripple localities, cost millions of jobs, and raise the cost of energy.  The end result will be millions of low-income seniors going without heat or electricity, putting their very lives in jeopardy.

“When the EPA issues radical and extreme regulations, the cost of energy goes up, and we know all too well that high energy prices hit low-income seniors especially hard, and can literally kill them during heat waves or deep freezes.”

Martin, who has been crusading for sound energy policy on behalf of America’s seniors and families for two decades, specifically referenced the Chicago heat wave of 1995, where over 500 low-income residents died – the vast majority of them seniors – because they could not afford to turn on their air-conditioning.

“If this Administration’s radical anti-coal and anti-energy environmental policy sees the light of day, it will cost seniors their lives.  It must be stopped, and every American who cares about the plight of the less fortunate and their own energy bills should demand an energy policy from Washington that will make electricity cheaper, not vastly more expensive.  Let’s not forget that over 50% of America’s electricity comes from coal, and when the EPA targets ozone emissions, they are sending our families’ electricity bills through the roof.

I know of where I speak, having been born in eastern Kentucky where coal is king. It is cheap and abundant and provides more than half of the electricity in the U.S., but President Obama and the EPA have declared all out war on coal fired power plants. They want ‘clean’ coal. Who doesn’t? But dirty coal is better than no coal at all.  This is Coal Miners’ Appreciation Week and I salute coal miners as they work to provide affordable energy and as they work to provide for their families.”

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