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May 31, 2012

By BILL RANEY, PRESIDENT

West Virginia Coal Association

CHARLESTON -- Friday’s Congressional hearing on the EPA’s revocation of the three-year old permit for the Spruce Mine clearly revealed the impact of the EPA’s war on coal … and indeed its war on American industry… on jobs in Logan County and across the country.

The list of attendees was in itself telling – West Virginia was there in the form of Sen. Art Kirkendoll. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Manufacturer’s Association were there. Yet, despite being asked to attend, no one from the Obama Administration or the EPA chose to attend the hearing. Apparently they had better things to do than talk about jobs.

Had the EPA not revoked its permit, the Spruce Mine would provide much-needed jobs and a substantial economic boost to Logan and Boone counties and to the surrounding area, but the issue goes far beyond a single mining permit. It is rather about trust... about the most important component of the relationship between people and their government.,

Ten years went into the development of the Spruce Mine permit – 10 years in which the EPA was consulted at each step along the way. The mining plan was approved by EPA and all other agencies and the permit issued. The company then began taking the steps to begin production, making investment in equipment, land and development. The company began hiring coal miners.

Three years later, in the wake of the change to the Obama Administration, the new leaders of the EPA moved to revoke the permit. In doing so, it cast into doubt every permit issued by the federal government for any purpose – and in the words of Rep. Lamborn, “made them not worth the paper they are printed on.”

Committee members today spoke about the “chilling effect” this action, and others like it, by an “out-of-control EPA” have had on American business, on jobs and investment.  We feel that effect here in West Virginia more and more every day as far too many of our coal mining families are facing layoffs and uncertainty.

In March 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson – herself an Obama appointee -- rejected the EPA's veto decision with a very clear decision, declaring that the agency overstepped it's authority and engaged in “magical thinking.” Despite this, in May, the EPA announced that it would appeal the judge's decision and within 72 hours issued impossible to meet greenhouse gas rules. It seems they are blinded to anything beyond their narrow political agenda and will stop at nothing to implement it at the expense of our people.

We have recently seen stories that imply the EPA’s war on coal isn’t real, and they point to a recent uptick in mining employment as evidence. They suggest the policies pursued by the Obama EPA have somehow led to this increase in hiring. We want to assure you that we welcome the opportunity to hire miners and we were able to do so because we believe in our industry and we see a need to begin hiring and training a new generation as much of our current workforce nears retirement age, but let me make this clear, this increase in employment happened due to the hard work of our mine management teams who were able to modify existing mining plans to remain within current permits. By doing so, we were able to take advantage of overseas markets, increase exports of our coal and keep our people working. We could have done so much more, hired more of our hard-working West Virginians had we simply been given the new permits and granted the modifications to existing ones.

All the while we were saying it was a “crisis in waiting” – out there, just over the horizon. The crisis isn’t waiting anymore. The storm is upon us and now we must act.

In the past, of course, mining permit requirements have changes, but those changes were always applied to the “next” permits – have usually not been applied retroactively as standards to existing permits. Yet in the case of Spruce and other examples coming in from across the country, the EPA has “shifted the goal posts” – changing certainty into uncertainty and hope into despair – and that isn’t America.

I would like to thank the Committee and its members for holding the hearing and casting some light on this issue – exposing the rogue behavior of this agency. We would also like to thank State Senator Art Kirkendoll, of Logan County; Ms. Karen Harbert , president & CEO, Institute for 21st Century Energy, US Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Ross Eisenberg, National Association of Manufacturers, VP, Energy and Resources Policy and especially Rep. David McKinley, (R-WV) for their help in bringing this issue before this committee.

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May 30, 2012

• At the very same time that U.S. electricity producers are slashing their use of coal for economic and environmental reasons, countries around the world are dramatically increasing their use of the fuel. A look at coal and electricity demand in locations from Hanoi, Vietnam to Dusseldorf, Germany shows that the rest of the world is not going beyond coal. In fact, just the opposite is happening.
• Between 2001 and 2010, U.S. coal consumption fell by 5 percent and domestic carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 1.7 percent. But over that same time period, global coal consumption soared by 47 percent, or the equivalent of 23 million barrels of oil per day. Put another way, over the past decade or so, global coal consumption increased by about the same amount as the growth in oil, natural gas, and nuclear combined.
• Coal use is soaring because demand for electricity is soaring. Between 1990 and 2010, global electricity production increased by about 450 terawatt-hours per year. That’s the equivalent of adding one Brazil (which used 485 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2010) to the electricity sector every year. And the International Energy Agency expects global electricity use to continue growing by about one Brazil per year through 2035.
  

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May 24, 2012

The Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary has a new web site and are asking everyone to visit the new web site www.friendsofcoalladies.com as many times as you can.  For each time you visit, the web site moves up so when you type “coal” into your search engine the web site will be one of the top listed in your search.   The site also hosts a full store for purchase of FOC items and wearing apparel.

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May 24, 2012

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR KENTUCKY COAL

Save the Dates:  June 5 in Frankfort and June 7 in Pikeville

Background:

At the request of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, the United States EPA will conduct hearings in Frankfort on June 5 and in Pikeville on June 7, regarding EPA’s specific objections to 36 individual KPDES permits that would authorize discharges from new or expanded surface coal mining activities in eastern Kentucky.

The EPA objections have prevented the issuance of all individual Clean Water Act (CWA) permits for new or expanded surface coal mining activities in eastern Kentucky for more than two years. The economic effect of the EPA’s objections has been significant in that the 19 most recent objections alone are estimated to have cost Kentucky some 3,800 coal-related jobs and more than $123 million in lost coal severance taxes.

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May 24, 2012

CEDAR (coal education development and Resources) of Southern West Virginia, has just completed their eleventh year.  Over that period, CEDAR has provided 457 teachers with approximately $116,385 in grant money to utilize in their classroom teaching about the many benefits coal has to offer.  12,372 students have been involved in these coal study units in Mingo, Logan, Boone, McDowell and Wyoming counties.

During the week of April 30 – May 4, approximately 800 visitors toured the projects (241) at the Harless Community Center in Gilbert.  To date, CEDAR and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College have awarded $70,000 in scholarship monies to students from the participating counties.