Coal Ally Defeats Coal Ally in Indiana Senate Race

Evan Bayh’s opposition to President Obama’s climate policies wasn’t enough.

Michael Conroy/AP


Republican Rep. Todd Young has defeated former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh in the Indiana Senate race after a hard-fought contest in which both candidates ran pro-coal campaigns.

Evan Bayh, the state’s former Democratic senator, is one of the few Democrats this year to champion the coal industry. On his campaign website, he touted his opposition to a cap-and-trade plan backed by President Barack Obama during his first term that would have limited carbon emissions. In 2009, Bayh said on MSNBC’s Hardball that the bill put jobs at risk in coal states, including Indiana.

In line with his pro-coal stance, Bayh said during a debate last month that he opposes Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal power plants. “I don’t agree with the Clean Power Plan,” he said. “That’s something I disagree with Mrs. Clinton on. I think those things would be harmful to Hoosier consumers.” Bayh’s campaign website declared: “Evan Bayh supports Indiana’s coal industry, including opposing the EPA’s coal rules.”

Like Bayh, Young opposes cap-and-trade proposals and the Clean Power Plan. Young is an outspoken opponent of the so-called “War on Coal” and calls coal “a vital part of ensuring Hoosiers have access to affordable electricity.” In 2014, as a candidate for the US House of Representatives, Young cited his support for “energy efficiency measures” such natural gas, while saying that carbon dioxide emissions are a global problem and that the United States should not “unilaterally tax our power, our people, to solve a global problem.” The previous year, according to the Bloomington Herald Times, he told a group of protesters gathered outside his office, “I don’t deny climate change. I would put myself in the agnostic category.”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate