Yesterday, John Raese’s campaign released a new ad, which accuses Gov. Joe Manchin of “passing a law that eliminates 25 percent of coal usage in our power plant.” That law, the narrator continues, “is Obama’s cap-and-trade, West Virginia style.” When Raese appears in the ad, he warns that “cutting coal usage will cost West Virginia jobs.” Watch it here:

According to CNN, the Manchin campaign calls the ad “yet another blatantly false attack,” and argues that “Joe Manchin led the fight opposing the cap-and-trade agenda of Barack Obama that would devastate the coal industry.” The campaign also said that the bill signed by Manchin in 2009 — the Alternative and Renewable Energy Act — “does nothing to inhibit the use of coal in West Virginia’s power plants because it classifies coal as an alternative energy source, allowing the goals of the Act to be accomplished using only coal and natural gas.”

Meanwhile, The Weekly Standard’s Jay Cost says that Raese’s current lead could never have occurred in earlier years, when the coal industry dominated the state much more. He has a fascinating chart showing the decline of the industry in the state.