* The Southern…

This year’s Coal & Mining Expo opened Wednesday at the Marion Cultural and Civic Center.

A meeting of the minds was highlighted by the presence of four CEOs from the nation’s top coal companies — Alliance Coal, Knight Hawk Coal, Peabody Energy and Prairie State Energy — and was bookended by political stumping from the state’s top coal supporters and political hopefuls this fall.

Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, was the first to take the stage and said unlike others in Washington, “we love coal,” he said of the other Republicans on stage with him. […]

Speaking next was Erika Harold, the Republican nominee for Illinois attorney general. She told those in attendance that the last thing Illinois needed was another attorney general who capitulates to environmentalist groups.

Yikes.

* I was able to get some audio of the event and this is Harold’s quote…

With all of the challenges that Illinois faces, the last thing that Illinois needs is another attorney general who will do the bidding of the environmentalist activist groups.

* Some of Harold’s speech so we can put that into context…

For the first time in 16 years, the Attorney General’s seat will be an open seat, and that’s because Lisa Madigan, who severed as Attorney General for the past four terms, dropped out of the race a month after I announced my candidacy. This provides the state with a much-needed opportunity to move the Attorney General’s office in a new direction.

Lisa Madigan often used this office in activist political ways, targeting industries such as the coal industry, on the basis of her own personal views as opposed to simply following the law. Whether it was joining with other states attorneys general in lawsuits that targeted the coal industry, or working to enact rules that unduly burdened the coal industry, Attorney General Madigan has used her office to pick winners and losers in the energy industry as opposed to advocating for a balanced and fair playing field for everyone.

My opponent, state Sen. Kwame Raoul, would be more of the same. He’s from Chicago, was appointed to President Obama’s former state senate seat, and is strongly backed by Mike Madigan and the Cook County Democratic machine. And as a state Senator, he’s championed legislation that would hurt the coal industry.

A specific example is Senate Bill 3005, which he sponsored this past legislative session. SB3005 would have given legal standing to any person, regardless of whether or not they lived in Illinois, to use Illinois courts to challenge the decisions of Illinois state agencies. So if a mining company followed the procedures to obtain a permit, and state agencies found that the permit should be granted, SB3005 would have allowed a political activist from California or New York to have legal standing to come into an Illinois court to challenge the state agency’s decision and to try to block the permit from being granted.

This unfettered expansion of standing would exacerbate Illinois’ already overly litigious environment. It would hurt job creation by driving up the cost of business in Illinois. And it would harm industries like the coal industry that simply want a predictable and consistent and fair playing field.

Unsurprisingly, environmental activist groups strongly backed Sen. Raoul’s bill. In fact, the Illinois Environmental Council took credit for it as being their initiative in the first place.

With all of the challenges that Illinois faces, the last thing that Illinois needs is another attorney general who will do the bidding of the environmentalist activist groups. As attorney general I will follow the law, I will enforce the law, I will refrain from picking winners and losers. And I will advocate for a fair playing field. I will also listen more and be willing to constructively engage with groups to be able to understand their industry and to see how Illinois’ regulatory environment may be inhibiting economic growth. […]

The coal industry is an extremely important one in Illinois, and you deserve an Attorney General who understands that. And you deserve an attorney general who will not use the office’s vast powers to try to destroy coal as an industry. And I will be that attorney general.

Thank you for what you do to support jobs in Illinois, to create energy options for consumers and to sustain a way of life for generations of mining families now and the years to come. Thanks so much for having me.

…Adding… A clever comment…

This is a rich vein that I expect Raoul to mine to great effect. I’d start with a map of Chicago overlaid with rates of childhood asthma and simply take it from there.

Except, Raoul has raised $13,000 from Foresight Energy during his career, including a February contribution. Harold has not yet taken any coal money.

…Adding… Sen. Raoul tweets about his record here.

*** UPDATE *** From Jen Walling, the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council…

Erika Harold’s misreading of SB3005 is concerning.

Far from allowing out of state plaintiffs to challenge permits, SB3005 would allow only those adversely affected by a project to challenge a permit. As I hope any candidate for attorney general would understand after researching the issue, “adversely affected” is a term well-established by case law to refer only to those who can demonstrate injury in fact caused by a project. Constrained by this precedence, standing could not possibly be extended to a resident living in California or New York, as Harold mistakenly claims.

The standing provisions contemplated by SB3005 are already available under federal and Illinois law on permits related to coal mining or coal power plants, meaning SB3005 would have literally no impact on the coal industry, despite what industry talking points may say.