Did you see the July 17th Letter-To-The-Editor from Brooke Schaeffer, District director for Congressman John Kline, entitled : “Kline’s jobs fair shows he strives to provide excellent service” with the tag line : “Kline is grateful for every opportunity to help the men and women in our district” ?

Did you see the July 16th press release from John Kline entitled “John Kline Supports Bipartisan Efforts to Keep Faith With Our Veterans” ?
Caveat Emptor : only Justin Amash (R-MI-03) voted NO on HR2499 Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 2015 and HR251 Home for Heroes Act of 2015 …. it’s pretty safe to say that since every Democrat voted for it and only one Republican opposed, that whoever was representing Minnesota’s Second District would have voted for these measures. Which should beg the question … is this just another press release suggesting legislative accomplishment to be used in the next election campaign ?

Did you see a press release from John Kline after his six votes on HR 1734 Improving Coal Combustion Residuals Regulation Act of 2015 (which was sponsored by John “CoalMan” Kline) ?

No … well, that is shocking … after all “Kline is grateful for every opportunity to help the men and women in our district” AND the Coal Industry … of course that means that ensuring safe drinking water is not a concern.
Oh, and HR 1734 did not pass with only one NO vote … there were 166 bipartisan Members who thought this was a bad bill.

OK … lets consider a news story from last year … on February 2 2014, 39,000 pounds of coal ash (a toxic byproduct of burning coal for power generation) and an estimated to 27 million gallons of water wwas released from a pond at Duke Power’s retired power plant in Eden NC into the Dan River.

“The massive coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River last year was a crime and it was the result of repeated failures by Duke Energy’s subsidiaries to exercise controls over coal ash facilities,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement announcing that Duke would be held accountable. Duke Energy pleaded guilty in May to nine violations of the federal Clean Water Act and will pay $102 million in fines and restitution for illegally discharging pollution from coal-ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants in Eden, Moncure, Asheville, Goldsboro and Mt. Holly NC.

Yeah, that one event led to public recognition of other problems.

Meanwhile, after three years of public comment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s issued it’s first-ever coal ash rule in December … to be effective on October 14, 2015.

So with that as a backdrop, John Kline co-sponsored a bill to remove the rule’s national standard for drinking water protection and cleanup of coal ash-contaminated sites.

And the House voted on that bill yesterday … in six votes … and each time John Kline’s side prevailed (meaning “Coal Man” won, clean water lost).

One of the votes actually garnered some Republican support including the House Republican caucus chair, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers … but it too failed. The amendment was offered by Alma Adams (D-NC-12) to require the owner/operator of a coal combustion residuals surface impoundment (a) to survey all drinking water supply wells that are within a half mile and down-gradient of the established waste boundary and (b) to supply an alternative source of safe drinking water within 24 hours if well water sampling exceeds groundwater standards.
Sounds reasonable right and you can understand why Representative Adams would push it when North Carolina testing has revealed that more than 90 percent of the 285 drinking wells tested show contamination exceeding state safety standards.
But John “Coal Man” Kline and his sycophants objected, so it failed.

The Kline-backed bill allows states to decide that groundwater contamination and other pollution need not be cleaned up — in other words, if the “mess” can be ignored or impacts other states, so what.
The Kline-backed bill cannot guarantee public safety nor that citizens near coal ash dumps are informed of drinking water contamination or dam safety problems … in fact, because of where the coal ash ponds are located, it is the most vulnerable communities who are at risk, as nearly 70 percent of coal ash ponds are in areas where income is below average.

No, John Kline is not concerned about those communities … he is concerned about his “constituent” … the Coal Industry … after all in 2014 election cycle, OpenSecrets reports that $48,050 was contributed to him from the Coal Industry; so he supports
— Delaying health and safety protections, potentially for more than 10 years;
— Delaying the closure of leaking unlined ponds that have contaminated water and allow such ponds to continue leaking for an additional 8.5 years;
— Weakening the rule’s mandate to close inactive, contaminated, and abandoned ponds by extending the deadline for closure, allowing legacy ponds to operate without safeguards for at least 6 years.

So while some companies are actively working to comply with the provisions of the new EPA rule in a cost-effective and protective manner, John “Coal Man” Kline is working to “move the goalposts” … and who will that benefit … not the public … (who could be forced to pay for any clean-up if calamity happens and the company files for bankruptcy.)

No doubt about, these votes just re-enforces John Kline’s recognition in the Top Ten listing of “Dirty Deniers”.