By Seth McLaughlin

The Republican challenger for the 9th Congressional District yesterday said that U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher “sold out” the region he has represented for 28 years when he supported the “cap-and-trade” bill that passed the U.S. House last year.

“Cap-and-trade shows that Rick Boucher is out of touch,” House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, told Virginia Statehouse News. “Not only did he vote for it. He also wrote it.”

While Boucher’s office did not respond to requests seeking comment Tuesday, the Democrat has said the bill would “preserve coal jobs, create opportunity for increasing coal production and keep electricity rates in regions like Southwest Virginia affordable.”

Last June, the House passed and Boucher supported a bill that included the “cap-and-trade” system where a price is set for greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, and polluters can obtain and trade credits for emissions over a set threshold. 

Since then, Griffith, other Republicans and even some Democrats have said that the bill could kill jobs and hurt local economies and communities in rural areas of the country, including southwest Virginia, where the coal mining industry runs through the veins of local communities.

Andy Sere, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the national party is keeping a close eye on the 9th – thanks in large part to the local response to cap-and-trade.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to find out that Southwest Virginians are against cap-and-trade,” Sere said. “All you have to do is take a quick trip around the district and talk to average votes.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee could not be reached for comment.

Bill Bledsoe, executive director of the Virginia Mining Association, which represents about 80 business and corporate groups tied to the mining industry, said Boucher has been a “friend to coal," but suggested that was not the case this time.

“I’m sure Congressman Boucher felt there would be cap-and-trade legislation and this bill would minimize the impact on the industry,” Bledsoe said. “But a lot of others did not see it that way.”

The criticism comes roughly five months out from midterm elections in which Republicans need 39 seats to control the U.S. House of Representatives and roughly a year after the American Clean Energy and Security Act – also known as the cap-and-trade bill – passed the House. 

The bill has yet to pass the U.S. Senate, but President Barack Obama is expected to meet with leading Senate Democrats and Republicans at the White House on Wednesday in an attempt to resolve outstanding differences.

The White House has said Obama wants the energy legislation to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, make key investments in clean energy technology, and deal "fundamentally with the environmental degradation that happens from carbon pollution.”

In a press release Tuesday, Griffith echoed the response of national Republican party leaders by saying Obama was exploiting the disaster of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to shove his controversial policy through Congress.

"Attacking the coal industry will not clean the beaches or save the wildlife," Griffith said.  "The Gulf coast will not be helped, while electric rates skyrocket and southwestern Virginia jobs are lost."