In a U.S. Senate where lawmakers represent the best interests of their constituents, Sen. Shelley Capito's bill to stop the war on coal and reasonably priced electricity would sail to enactment with a veto-proof majority.
But Capito's is not the first attempt to rein in the all-out assault on coal and tens of millions of American families. Other initiatives have failed because many senators refuse to defend those who elected them - often preferring instead to stand with their party's president, Barack Obama.
Capito, R-W.Va., introduced her Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act, S1324, last week. In essence, it is aimed at preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from pursuing a campaign that already has closed scores of coal-fired power plants and threatens to idle many others. If that happens, electric bills for tens of millions of Americans will soar, perhaps by as much as $1,000 a year. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of the bill's co-sponsors, estimates it will cost the nation $479 billion during the next 15 years.
Obama's war on coal also will devastate states such as West Virginia and Ohio that rely heavily on both coal mining and coal-fired power plants.
But Capito's bill has just 26 co-sponsors. Of them, only one, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is a Democrat.
No doubt more senators will sign on to the bill. Several who have supported similar measures in the past have not yet been listed as co-sponsors.
But many senators from states relying heavily on coal-fired power plants will not back the bill - simply because they are Democrats who refuse to oppose Obama.
About 40 percent of the nation's electricity is from coal-fired power plants. Twenty-eight states rely on them for one-third or more of their electricity. If every senator from every one of those states voted for Capito's bill, it would pass over a veto by Obama because of lawmakers from other states who are concerned enough to back the measure.
But, again based on similar attempts in the past, most of those senators - primarily Democrats - will not support the bill. In some of their states, nearly half their constituents will pay higher electric bills if the EPA is not reined in.
Voters in states where senators and House of Representatives members have failed them on the issue need to be told. If ever there was a time for a campaign to educate the public in those states, it is now. Again, Obama and the EPA have closed scores of power plants, with more going offline every month. Time is running out for many Americans to understand, as we in West Virginia and Ohio do, the peril they face - and to hold their elected representatives accountable.