Rick Boucher has served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s Ninth District since taking office in January of 1983. He has the challenge of having a large geographic area to cover, but for the most part has done a solid job representing the “Fightin’ Ninth.”

Since winning with just 50 percent of the vote in 1982, the Abingdon native has easily defeated Republican candidates ever since, apparently to the point to which Republicans felt it was futile to run against him this year.

So an endorsement seems pretty easy when there’s just one guy running, right? Well, we’d like to use this opportunity to complement Boucher on what he’s doing well but also to challenge him on some other areas.

Boucher has been exceptional in pushing Southwest Virginia toward technology jobs and he helped create the Congressional Internet Caucus, a bipartisan group of more than 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet. Boucher is currently a co-chair of that group.

Boucher has pushed for quality legislation on Internet and technology issues and earlier this year he was ranked 11th in effectiveness of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Congressional Power Rankings, which were released on the Congress.org website.

He has done a lot to boost tourism in Southwest Virginia, bringing in federal funds for projects such as the Blue Ridge Parkway, the William King Regional Arts Center in Abingdon, the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail in Scott County, and the Lincoln Center in Marion among many other tourism efforts.

We question, though, Boucher’s stance on coal, as mountaintop removal continues in Wise County and Boucher introduced legislation in this summer that will pump $1 billion into technology aimed at clean coal technology, which is something we have our doubts about. “Coal is America’s most abundant domestic fuel, and today, coal accounts for more than one-half of the fuel used for electricity generation,” Boucher, who is chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, said. We believe clean coal is putting lipstick on a dirty pig and that Boucher needs to take a stand in sustainable energy for the future rather than spending so much money on a nonsustainable and polluting fuel source.

Boucher voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War, which we feel was a clear mistake.

And we question Boucher’s coziness (i.e. accepting major campaign contributions from) to lobbying firm Patton Boggs; nuclear energy company Energy Solutions; electric suppliers Constellation Energy, Exelon, Duke Energy, and Dominion Resources; coal company Peabody Energy; and Ruport Murdoch’s mega-media company News Corp., owners of Fox News among other holdings.

Boucher has done a lot for Southwest Virginia; however, we hope that he will remember to put first the people and environmental resources of his district over the special interests and energy companies that often finance his campaigns.