Calhoun and Madison counties, IL

[DINGO Joe]

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What's the deal with that Effingham place? Not only is it one, but it voted 75% for Romney and even voted for ALAN KEYES by 17 points. Demographically though it looks like a standard boring Midwestern town, we have hoards of similar ones as do Wisconsin and Iowa and most of those are about 55% R at worse.
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They're probably angry about living in a county that sounds like someone cursing out a pig.  I've been through there a few times, even eaten at a decent bar-b-que place, nothing in particular stands out.

[DINGO Joe]

An odd little factoid about about coal and Southern Illinois.  Back in 1970s when the Nixon era Clean Air Act was enacted, coal plants had to regulate the amount of sulfur they spewed into the air.  Plants either had to install scrubbers or burn low sulfur coal to comply, and all new plants had to have scrubbers going forward.  Many chose to switch to low sulfur Wyoming coal (Powder River Basin) or Appalachian coal from high sulfur Illinois Basin coal (Ill, IN, W KY and MO) and the mining industry in Illinois Basin took a beating.  More recently, environmental regulations require all plants regardless of age to have scrubbers if they wish to continue operating.  That means that the sulfur content of coal no longer matters and thus the Illinois basin coal, which is cheaper than Appalachian and has a lower transport cost than Wyoming coal has been taking market share and is expected to continue that trend.  Thus, while coal production is way down in Appalachia and Wyoming this year it's actually up in the Illinois basin thanks to environmental regulations.