The Obama administration has made no effort to hide its disdain for the coal industry, so this report from John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit shouldn’t surprise anyone:

State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, said while the shutdown does affect residents in his area, he is not sure how many people were impacted.

“We know that those places wouldn’t be closing if it wasn’t for (President) Obama and the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the regulations on burning coal,” he said.

Jackson said the negative impact on Saline County is from regulations placed on coal mines by the government.

On Monday Patriot Coal Corporation closed two western Kentucky mines. On New Year’s Eve the company announced the mines will be closed. The effects will be felt beyond Kentucky, as a Republican member of Illinois’ Saline County Board, Joe Jackson, points out.

Professor Jacobson addressed Obama’s disregard for the constitution and his efforts to hamper the coal industry in his recent column for USA Today:

Constitution’s horrible, no good, very bad year

As 2014 comes to a close, it’s worth considering the Obama administration legacy as we head into 2015…

As to the environment, EPA regulatory authority has been used expansively to scale-back the coal industry and shutter coal burning power plants. Those regulations have cost Democrats politically in states like West Virginia and Kentucky, but the damage to the coal industry may be irreversible.

Further, the administration has moved to implement national carbon-emission reductions even though Congress has not approved such a national reworking of our energy policy. Even The New York Times notes that President Obama “could leave office with the most aggressive, far-reaching environmental legacy of any occupant of the White House. Yet it is very possible that not a single major environmental law will have passed during his two terms in Washington.”

The exploitation of environmental regulatory authority not to implement laws, but to create a regulatory equivalent of legislation, is an abuse of executive discretion. At every level, the Obama administration has signaled that going it alone is the only way to get things done.