By declaring “no coal plants here in America,” Joe Biden has effectively ceded Western Pennsylvania to the McCain campaign.
- Most anthracite coal is found in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania has 29 billion tons of coal reserves, or 6.1% of the country’s reserves.
- The combined direct and indirect contributions of the coal industry to Pennsylvania’s economy are more than $10 billion.
- Using more than 57 million tons, Pennsylvania ranks fourth in coal use.
- Pennsylvania employs more than 9,300 miners.
- Pennsylvania distributes more than 75 million tons of coal each year.
- Pennsylvania has 82 underground mines and 225 surface mines.
- About 58% of the electricity used in Pennsylvania is produced by coal.
- Pennsylvania produces about 7% of the country’s coal supply.
- Pennsylvania has 23 coal-fired power plants.
Good luck winning the state with just Philly and some of the ‘burbs, Senators.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports for duty to help Obama:
The campaign even ran an early ad in this market emphasizing Biden’s roots here. But those roots may not cure all in a region where Obama’s top campaigners, a couple of popular Lackawanna County commissioners, received hate mail during the primary just for backing the Illinois senator. More than is sometimes acknowledged, residents say, this is a region wrestling with bitterness and backwardness, the kind that Aunie Frisch, who has Chinese ancestry, sometimes finds maddening.
Gee, with all that “bitterness and backwardness,” do they cling to anything? Religion and guns, perhaps?