Congressmen Targeting Paper Mills

Last night I attended the wind energy meeting at, appropriately enough, the Wind Lea Conference Center. US Windforce representatives broke down for us the pre construction steps that needed to be taken before the turbines can go up, along with reviewing what they had done in the last six months to get this far. I came away thinking that if I had money to invest to actually build a new industrial concern, I would probably do it in China. Why would anyone want to jump through all of these regulatory hoops to build in the United States? The process is so difficult, expensive, and time consuming that it is not worthwhile to manufacture here. Since we have chosen to make new manufacturing as difficult as possible by electing leaders that pass these laws, if we want good jobs, we must keep what we have.

Around here, that means The Mill. In an economic downturn, our paper mill's employees are always worried about layoffs or even a shut down. They have to worry because it is their family's livelihood. Even more importantly is the ripple effect from employees. They can afford to surface their driveways, put in pools, and do other things that employ local small businesses. I know of one small business whose entire customer base last summer was mill employees.

That is why the new efforts to slip cap and trade back into relevance are so menacing. Joe Lieberman (I) CT, Lindsay Graham (allegedly R) SC and John Kerry (D) MA are trying to refashion the cap and trade bill to go after specific industries. Going after everything at once was too controversial. Going after industries piecemeal might not get as much negative attention.

They want to go after electric utilities first. That, of course, means coal fired plants. We are familiar with the War on Coal. However, among the next list of targets are paper mills. In both cases they want to introduce costly regulations that will have the effect of driving away jobs and perhaps entire establishments.

Clearly if this new assault on mining and manufacturing is allowed to pass, Mineral, Garrett, and Allegheny Counties will be economically devastated. Each relies so heavily on the mill at Luke for jobs.

Lindsay Graham has broken from an otherwise solid GOP stance against this further assault on manufacturing. Otherwise, Republicans by and large support the businesses and workers in mills, mines, and other traditional blue collar fields.

Mill workers and miners in this area need to get their unions active on this issue. Tell them to blast Congress with demands that they stop attacking the American worker in the name of a global warming theory based on the fraud of lying scientists. In the past, unions protected labor against company policies that sometimes neglected workers' interests. Now it is clear that labor unions and business have the common interest of keeping jobs here. They need to work together to fight legislation that kills jobs.

If the mill goes away, what will replace it? Who will employ these people? Where will they go? What will they do? John Kerry, Lindsay Graham, and Joe Liebermann should come to Luke and answer those questions personally.