| John,
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania once was a place of opportunity.
Family-sustaining energy jobs were plentiful as new infrastructure projects came online. Those investments slowed once Washington policymakers began piling more rules onto project development.
In 2015, Emerald Mine shuttered its 38-year-old business, citing a slowing market and a challenging regulatory environment. Hundreds of people lost their jobs, and the mine’s abandoned green towers stand as a constant reminder.
By 2019, the number of active mining sites in the Waynesburg area fell from nine to four and its county’s population shrank by about 2,500 residents.
By 2021, Waynesburg leaders were worrying about the town going broke.
Top-down rules stifle energy production — raising prices for consumers across the country — and make it too difficult for companies to build in Waynesburg.
This new video short we produced here at Americans for Prosperity tells the real stories of the people in the path of Washington’s red tape.
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