More Coal Than You Can Stand

Ralph points out some rather bizarre rantings from Jim Muir in the Southern that really resembles pouting more than anything.

Here’s Muir’s thesis:

As The Candidate you will remember the many times Obama traipsed through Southern Illinois in his bid to become a U.S. senator. In fact, I remember last April when The Candidate Obama, accompanied by The Elected Official Dick Durbin, visited the Southern Illinois University Coal Research Park in Carterville and made promise after promise about his commitment to help Southern Illinois residents secure jobs by doing all he could to revive the dying coal industry.

Yes, it was quite a day for The Candidate Obama in Carterville, the marching bands, smiling hangers-on and glad-handing politicians.

But sadly, that was then and this is now. In other words, that was The Candidate Obama, and now The Elected Official Obama seems to have forgotten that April day last year.

Muir’s either confused or wasn’t paying attention. Let’s look back to an AP Story on April 15th of 2004.

Obama and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who traveled with his fellow Democrat, also criticized pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules that they said would favor Western-mined coal, with its relatively low sulfur content, over higher-sulfur varieties mined in the East and Midwest.

Ryan’s campaign manager, Jason Miller, said Ryan also wants the proposal changed “so that there is no advantage given to Western coal over Illinois coal.”

The EPA has received several similar comments about the proposal, said spokeswoman Bonnie Piper. A final decision will be made on the rules after the public comment period ends April 30, she said.

Now, if the good Mr. Muir had been paying attention back in April he might have noticed that Barack Obama is doing exactly what he promised to do, and he seemed to be in agreement with Jack Ryan on the issue of Clear Skies and its effects on the use of Southern Illinois coal.

The entire thesis that the Clear Skies initiative will help Southern Illinois coal is very, very wrong. Barack Obama pointed this out in April and he’s held a consistent position since. One could disagree and make an argument that the Clear Skies Initiative will not be bad for coal, but that is an argument over the merits of Obama’s argument–not one over whether he lied. Obama didn’t lie and has held a perfectly consistent position.

Now, Muir does get Obama on one fact—Illinois doesn’t have one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.

Muir gets upset that Obama mentioned his daughter who has asthma

But, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Research the number of people afflicted by asthma is almost exclusively determined by genetic issues such as small lung volume, low birth weight, repeated childhood infections and exposure to toxins like chemicals in cigarettes while in the mother’s womb.

But what Obama has said on this is quite specific. On February 25th, in a State Journal Register story, Obama said

“I’ve got a 5-year-old daughter who’s got asthma,” he said. “Every bit of evidence out there shows that although pollutants may not cause asthma, they are certainly an important trigger.”

Obama’s statement is perfectly consistent with the Centers for Disease Control’s statements on asthma triggers.

But Muir wasn’t done, he decided to get a dig in on Chicago:

It might seem if The Elected Official Obama is concerned about his daughter’s asthma the logical thing to do would be to keep her out of Washington and move her out of Chicago — perhaps to Southern Illinois where we have Clear Skies.

This is problematic on many levels, but start with the assumption that rural areas have better rates of asthma:

Illinois overall ~11%
Using CDC data

Using self-report data which is higher for a variety of methodogical reasons.
Chicago 21.2%
Rural counties 21.2%

One may argue that both higher than should be considered accurate, but there is no reason to think one is disproportionately affected by over self-reporting. IOW, the rate appears damn close.

Adding to that, is that Southern Illinois has several air quality problems related to high mold counts, some of the worst allergy conditions in the nation, and several areas have air pollution problems from the Saint Louis Metropolitan area.

The worst monitored county in St. Louis’ air quality region is Jersey County.

That natural conditions make asthma more difficult in Southern Illinois, should be a reason to take air pollution especially serious.

Jim Muir: a columnist in need of a good editor.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *