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Ohio State Senator and candidate for Congress Bob Gibbs today reacted to news reports that Zack Space joined a Congressional “Coal Caucus” after Space had previously voted for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.  That bill, also known as “Cap and Trade” is unquestionably harmful to Ohio’s Coal industry, the heart of which is located in the 18th District, which Space now represents.

“This is another example of Zack Space voting one way, and then campaigning another,” said Gibbs.  “He can pay whatever lip service he wants to the men and women of our district who see their livelihoods flying out the window because of Nancy Pelosi’s agenda, which Zack Space has seen fit to rubber stamp, but when it was time to stand up for Ohio jobs with his actual vote in Congress, once again he flat-out blew it,” Gibbs added.

Space had also recently announced that he would vote against the Senate version of Health Care Reform, after initially voting for the House measure.  His newfound resistance to Health Care emerged just a few days after Republican Scott Brown surprisingly won his bid in the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, campaigning mainly against the Nationalized Health Care plan.

The Cap and Trade Bill will increase energy costs and send jobs overseas.  “By its very definition is designed to drive jobs out of coal country,” said Matt Borges, spokesman for the Bob Gibbs campaign.  “Ohio jobs were not taken into consideration in this bill, so you’d expect Ohio’s representatives to stand up against the bill and vote ‘no’.  But Zack Space didn’t.  Now he wants to be part of a group that opposes the very bill he voted for.  I’ve heard of trying to have it both ways, but this is ridiculous.”

The Coal Caucus was formed in part by Republican Shelly Moore-Capito of West Virginia, who was specifically critical of the Cap and Trade bill’s harmful impact on her state’s economy.  Fellow West Virginia Congressman, Democrat Alan Mollohan also joined the caucus, stating the obvious negative impact of the bill on his district, much of which borders Ohio.  Mollohan was quoted in today’s Wheeling News-Register, saying Cap and Trade bill “threatened West Virginia's interests and did not envision a realistic role for coal in the coming decades,” and saying, “unfortunately, that bill was passed by the House,” of the vote , while standing up for his district in a rebuke of his party’s leadership.  Moore-Capito, needless to say, voted against the bill too.