President Barack Obama is “doing everything he can” to shut down the coal industry, Rep. Scott Tipton of Colorado told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview, and that closely-contested Colorado will turn for Republican Mitt Romney.
Tipton, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and the Small Business and Natural Resources Committee, said he thinks the Stop the War on Coal Act has a chance of moving forward and that Republicans plan to use it to pressure Obama on his energy policies.
Watch the exclusive interview here.
“The president speaks one way and the policies that come out of this administration go the other direction,” he said. “Not only are they impacting coal, but they’re impacting our ability to be able to deliver natural gas and affordable energy, clean energy. And even to the point the administration opposed a bill that I passed through the full House in regards to hydroelectric power.”
Tipton continued, “Coal is an efficient source of energy. I can take you up to Craig, Colo., in my district. I’ll show you blue skies. We have new technology that we’re going to be able to employ to make sure that we’re delivering clean coal and providing affordable energy. And, if we care about senior citizens, and I do, the fixed incomes that they have are being impacted by rising energy prices in this country and we’ve got to be able to keep jobs right here in our country.”
He went on, “That’s what we’re going to be pushing for and this certainly separates us from the president’s policies because he’s doing everything he can to shut down not only the coal industry, but to diminish our production on public lands which creates a lot of jobs and could provide future energy security in this country.”
Turning to the election, Tipton predicted that the Romney/Ryan ticket will carry Colorado.
“Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan--they recognize what we have here in Colorado, a state that is suffering from high unemployment,” he said.
“We have pockets of prosperity in some of the metro area. It didn’t happen in my district. My two largest communities, Pueblo, Colo., the real unemployment number, which factor in those who are underemployed and just gave up looking for work, now stands at 20.2 percent. Grand Junction, my second largest community, stands at 19.5 percent.
"So they recognize, coming into these communities, that the third congressional district of Colorado, the state of Colorado can play a crucial role in terms of moving us to energy security in this country, to be able to create employment. . . . It is about economy, it is about jobs, it is about reducing debt in this country, which is a burden on our children and is going to crush their futures. We’ve got a plan. Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan are expressing that well in Colorado and we will carry the state of Colorado.”
Tipton said the Farm Bill will be taken up in the lame duck session after the election.
“You know, there was still a lot of concern over some of the expenditures in the SNAP program,” he said. “We actually had testimony out of the aid committee that was additional billions of dollars that literally could do things like cutting administrative costs and that created some concern, obviously, for members of our conference in the committee. That being said, it did pass out of the aid committee and move to the full floor and has not been scheduled but we do have an assurance from the speaker that the Farm Bill will be taken up once we move into the lame duck session.”
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