West Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. Senate will be sitting on several key committees when the new Congress takes its seats in January.
Incoming Senator Shelley Capito has been appointed to serve on the all-important Appropriations Committee, as well as the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
According to the latest report from the Energy Information Agency (EIA), coal production in the United States rose by 1.8 million tons for the week ending December 13, compared to the same time last year. Production for the week stood at 19.8 million tons compared to 18 million tons in 2013. Year-to-date, production was also up slightly, to 944.6 million tons from 939 million tons in 2013.
This increase was reflected in the number of rail car loadings, which saw an increase of 7.5% for the week over the same period last year. Rail car loadings were also up 0.2% year-to-date.
In another attack on coal and other traditional fuels, the Obama White House is now calling on federal agencies to consider the climate-change impact of a wide range of energy projects that require government approval.
The draft guidelines, released Thursday by the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, are likely to affect fossil-fuel projects the most, such as pipelines, terminals that export coal and liquefied natural gas, and production of oil, natural gas and coal on public lands.
West Virginia Coal Association files comments on the proposed rule
The West Virginia Coal Association joined Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and representatives of Appalachian Power and First Energy at a news conference Monday announcing their filing of comments related to the EPA's proposed carbon pollution emission guidelines for existing power plants - also known as the "Clean Power Plan." Monday was the last day to submit public comments on this latest job-killing regulation by the agency. WVCA President Bill Raney joined Tomblin and Appalachian Power President and COO Charles Patton in condemning the new regulation.
"This poorly devised, and we believe, illegal, power grab by the Obama EPA will hurt West Virginians by minimizing the use of West Virginia coal and force the closure of more coal-fired power plants across the country," Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association said. "It will further reduce the number of West Virginians working in the coal and power generation industries, taking paychecks out of our communities and further jeopardizing our state's economic prosperity. EPA is literally attempting to take control of the nation's electricity grid and the state's sovereign authority with these proposed rules".
"We certainly need our congressional representatives - Senator Manchin, Senator-elect Capito, Congressman McKinley, Congressmen-elect Mooney and Jenkins - to push the new Congress to do whatever they can to stop this job-killing, economy-smashing plan in its tracks. It makes no sense that EPA is inflicting the pain of taking our great coal miners' jobs for a CO2 reduction of less than 1% and this attempt to wrestle regulatory control away from the states will result in higher electric bills for most Americans," Raney said.
A recent study by Energy Ventures Analysis found that under these proposed rules, the annual West Virginia household electricity and gas bills will increase by $750 - a 38 percent increase - by 2020.
"President Obama is mandating a move away from low cost, coal-fired electricity to more expensive alternatives for an initiative that will have little to no impact on global climate change," Raney said. "When you take into account that more than 400 electric generating units across the country are slated for closure or transition to alternative fuels in the coming years, these rules also severely threaten the stability of America's power grid."
Raney offered that 58 coal-fired electric generating units across the country that currently use West Virginia coal will be shuttered by 2020. This represents the livelihood of thousands of state residents.
Over the past several months, more than 12,000 individuals have signed a West Virginia Coal Association petition in opposition to the EPA's "Clean Power Plan". All those signed petitions were mailed to EPA on Monday. The Association's comments can be viewed online at the organization's website at:
http://www.wvcoal.com/latest/wvca-comments-on-epa-hq-oar-2013-0602.html
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units; Proposed Rule, 79 Fed. Reg. 34,830 (June 18, 2014).
EPA—HQ-OAR-2013-0602