Ray McCarty, President and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, was a guest on the WTAD Morning Meeting radio show this morning, hosted by Bryan Nichols and Sean Secrease. The topic was AIM’s participation in the “Count on Coal” effort to protect the use of coal as an energy source for electricity production.
“Senator Claire McCaskill had a choice to make in June of this year: support her constituents by keeping their utility bills low, or support President Obama’s EPA regulation that, by the EPA’s own estimates, will raise every Missouri consumer’s utility bill by 2.8% to 6.3%,” said McCarty. “Senator McCaskill sided with President Obama and voted against a measure that would have reigned in the EPA regulation and protected Missouri consumers from those rate increases.”
While we must continue to explore new ways to generate electricity, coal provides a low-cost and reliable option for electricity production today. The government should not try to force technology by implementing unreasonable regulations that will only result in increased costs for Missouri consumers, including Missouri businesses. Manufacturers, hospitals and other businesses would pay twice: through direct increases in their utility bills and through the increased costs of goods and services resulting from the broad-based increase in utility rates.
To sign up to help protect Missouri’s use of coal, visit CountOnCoal.org. For the complete interview, visit the WTAD website here (the first 15 minutes is the interview).