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To the editor:
It has been a total of three weeks that the Joe Biden administration has been in office. During this period of time, he has signed 52 executive actions. Those include rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a pause energy leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a freeze on any new or pending regulations, a pause on new oil and gas leasing on U.S. lands and waters and the evaluation of climate changes to a national security, foreign-policy priority.
We all know that Democratic presidential candidates all promise to be an advocate for the middle and working class and they are always backed by unions. The fact is that neither are for the middle- and working-class Americans, and it has been proven by their actions after becoming president of the United States.
Bill Clinton: During his administration, the steel industry was sacrificed for the International Monetary Fund, bailing out other countries by having them dump steel in ours. As thousands of Americans lost their livelihoods and American industries looked for help by our government- none was given. In the Ohio Valley, the then-Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel Corp. sought to acquire a loan -- money that it needed for upgrades of a blast furnace. The loan was approved, but it was for the installation of an electric arc furnace (government knows best of what your business needs.) George Becker, who was USWA president during this time, encouraged workers to strike.
Barack Obama: To his credit he was honest, during campaigning in 2008 he did say he was going to "bankrupt" the coal industry. Cecil Roberts, UMWA president, endorsed him. During his presidency and beyond, 290 coal-fired plants ceased to exist, a loss of 40 percent of our nation's electricity (Wikipedia.) Obama's Renewable Energy Program from 2008 to 2016 supplied 5 percent of our country's total electricity generated.
Biden: Using climate change as a reason, the loss of 11,000 jobs, 8,000 of them union in the oil and gas industry, was the most aggressive attack on the American workers. In one day, with his signature, he did what no other America-hater has been trying to accomplish -- bring our nation to its knees. So far there has been no apparent push back from Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president.
This is what happens when America isn't first.
Merica Petrella
Steubenville