Image at right from Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times. 

Democrat Tim Kaine is desperately running away from his record as he attempts to become Virginia’s next senator. As governor, Kaine threw his support behind burdensome cap-and-trade regulations that were aimed at crippling his state’s vital coal industry. American Commitment’s Phil Kerpen writes in today’s Washington Times:

“As governor, he appointed an official Climate Change Commission and endorsed its recommendations, including draconian state-level restrictions on fossil fuel use. He testified on Capitol Hill in support of cap-and-trade energy taxes, which he continued to push enthusiastically when he became chairman of the Democratic National Committee.”

Now, locked in a tight race in a purple state, Kaine is trying to hide his dismal coal record from Virginia voters who need the jobs the industry provides. Suddenly, he says he stood up for coal jobs; the only problem is that no one seems to remember it:

“Mr. Kaine recently took to the air — literally — with a TV ad of himself in a helicopter, talking about how he brought a new coal plant to St. Paul, Va. Yet the New York Times reported in ‘more than a dozen interviews in St. Paul, no one was familiar with any role that Mr. Kaine had in getting the plant going.’ Environmental engineer Jeff Kite said, ‘I did the permitting, and I don’t remember that.’”

Don’t be fooled. Self-serving attempts at sweeping reality under the rug aren’t going unnoticed:

“Local delegate Terry Kilgore was outraged. ‘I have been involved in the Dominion Clean Coal plant in Wise [County] since its inception, and it’s news to me that Tim Kaine or his administration were strong advocates in making this a reality,’ Mr. Kilgore said. ‘In fact, we had to fight his boards to get it permitted.’”

Can Virginia really afford Tim Kaine’s politics as usual when coal is receiving an all-out assault? The anti-coal regulations he helped push claimed another 1,200 American jobs only a few weeks ago:

“Mines are being closed. The latest announcement came from Alpha Natural Resources, which is laying off 1,200 coal miners, citing ‘a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal.’”

A war on coal is one of the few campaign promises actually kept by President Obama. Now, four years later, thousands of jobs have been lost for a politically-fueled agenda that Tim Kaine supported until the moment it became politically inconvenient.

George Allen is Kaine’s Republican opponent.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots