There is substantial resistance in Coal Country, particularly Eastern Coal Country like Illinois (the coal has a higher sulfur content and is worse for the environment). It is not surprising then, because the one thing agreed upon, is that Coal needs to be drastically cut, if not phased out all together. So now I understand why that view prevails in your area. Basically in order to make substantial gains against global warming etc., the Coal industry needs to basically cease to exist.

And I know for a fact that the State of Illinois has pushed back hard against the Federal Government for trying to change to Rocky Mountain Coal, so now I understand. From what I understand nationwide though, that tends to be the minority view. And it creates some strange bedfellows. Big Oil and Gas Companies agreeing with Environmentalists for example. That's part of what I am seeing in Louisiana/Texas Region. The big rhetoric here is basically Coal is bad, and we should switch to Natural Gas until renewable sources are more efficient. Then again those companies plan on using Natural Gas indefinitely.

If it is not clear, my own views are hybridized. I see climate change as a real problem, though I personally think that harms are overstated. I think Coal is the largest offender. Technology marches forward so vehicle emissions are not as severe as a problem as the 80 year old Coal Plants, which have predominately been grandfathered into the Clean Air Act Regime with basically the same highly polluting technology. Frankly I am all for Nuclear Power, I think the rare accidents get too much focus. See now when they get brought up you will hear, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, etc. and they fail to realize that these incidents are incredibly rare, and with the exception of Chernobyl relatively minor. A Natural Gas plant going up would cause the same damage. Chernobyl is the exception, but that is largely because the Soviets just wanted to cover it up, so it kept leaking for longer than it ever should have.

Then you get into NIMBY issues, and that really hamstrings the industry. Radioactive waste just sits there, because Nevada refused to let the Yucca Mountain plan go into effect. Then Reid and the Senate killed the program dead just a year or two ago. Then you have Maine who did not want to put offshore wind platforms because it made the view worse. And then you have things like States just not wanting Nuclear Power (Vermont/New York) and basically close plants down forcing at least heavy temporary reliance on Coal (and more likely than not Eastern Coal, due to efficiency), which actually makes the problem worse. That does not even take into account efficiency issues with Solar and Wind Power.

But the political climate itself, it isn't that they are not resistant to change, its just many of the Republicans are looking for softer measures, like Cap and Trade, where many of the Democrats seem to want to do something like what Germany is doing now. Quit Cold Turkey. Now the polarization further complicates issues. The President does not really want to negotiate with Republicans, they do not really want to negotiate with him either. Then that does not include the fact that Senators Reid and McConnell really only talk at the 11th Hour. Then there is also the fact that right now the Tea Party has either forced out or paralyzed the Moderate Republicans, so the House cannot even work in their own party. No side really wants to compromise, but to be fair, part of that problem was related what then Minority Republicans saw as abuse of power, so Congress did exactly what it was designed to do in those instances, it became Gridlocked. And unfortunately we are now in the stage where no one really wants to give. Which is why, if anything gets done it's at the 11th Hour. And now the problem is the relationship between the President and Republicans in Congress is so sour, that the odds of anything of significance getting done is next to zero until there is a new President is elected, but if it ends up being Ms. Clinton, the gridlock will probably continue until the next Congressional Elections. The bottom line the relationship between current Republican and current Democratic leadership is terrible, and not likely to change anytime soon.

This wound up being far longer than I expected. So the TLDR version is basically:

The situation is a mess, I personally though do not think it is quite as severe a problem as is implied. Coal Country is very resistant to any Green House Gas regulation because it will basically obliterate an important industry that traditionally has been protected by those States, and the country is moving (albeit slowly) towards cleaner fuel, though the technology is not quite there yet. One last point, always treat US News sources with skepticism. All of them are biased. Ones like Fox are clearly biased, but even CNN, MSNBC, and the like do have substantial biases, they are just a lot more subtle than Fox is.

~[EvilAI]UBEROverlord, who can talk quite a bit more, and is probably clearly preparing for an Environmental Law Final and an Energy Regulation Final, but is glad he did not start citing cases, because then this would have gone on for another 30 pages. And also does not intend to offend anyone.