WVCA Vice Presidents Hamilton and Bostic were in Washington, DCrepresenting the WV industry in the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee’s oversight hearing on Friday, June 1.  The hearing focused on the EPA’s veto of Arch Coal’s Spruce Permit relative to the impacts it had on West Virginia and particularly the Logan County area.  WV State Senator Art Kirkendoll (D-Logan) testified and did an excellent job detailing the impact that EPA’s veto had on our industry, the State and most particularly, his Seventh Senatorial District of Logan, Boone, Lincoln and part of Wayne Counties.  Senator Kirkendoll aggressively addressed several questions from the Congressmen, and was joined by representatives of the US Chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers.  West Virginia’s First District Congressman David McKinley participated with very strong and positive statements. Again showing their blatant and arrogant disregard for Congress, the government witnesses, including OSM Director Joe Pizarchik and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson refused to participate in the hearing.  We appreciate Senator Kirkendoll’s willingness to participate and carry West Virginia’s concerns about EPA’s actions to this Subcommittee and Congress.  C-SPAN aired the Subcommittee hearing live on C-SPAN.org.

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.

WVCA will participate in the FACES’ (Federation for American Coal Energy and Security) Appalachian Coal Jobs rally tomorrow (June 2) in Abingdon, Virginia at the Washington County Fairgrounds with Governor Bob McDonell and Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith headlining the event. Although unable to attend the rally,  West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and United States Senator Joe Manchin have provided strong letters of support to protect our industry, its miners and our families from the federal administration’s  “War on Coal.”  Two bus-loads of supporters from the Citizens for Coal will depart Logan early tomorrow morning and join the anticipated large crowd for an 11:00 a.m. kick-off.  The event will focus on EPA’s “War on Coal”, it’s ridiculous air rules and, what our people call an underhanded EPA three-year moratorium on new surface mining permits in Appalachia.  In addition to West Virginians, large contingents are expected from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and possibly Alabama.  Virginia is a “swing state” for this fall’s Presidential election and is very important to helping stop the “War on Coal.”  Hope to see you in Abingdon tomorrow…

Please ask Senators Rockefeller and Manchin for their HELP in (1) controlling EPA and, (2) HELPING to protect our jobs, our way of life and our future. Ask them to HELP with two major issues that are currently pending in Congress that are very important to our industry, our people and the entire State of West Virginia. We need to get as many messages of support as possible to the Senators. The two issues are:

A very special thanks to Rocky Hackworth with Pritchard Mining for his participation in the State Baseball tournament.  Rocky was on hand to present the Friends of Coal trophies to the champions in each of the three classes, as well as the personal plaques for each member of the championship and runner-up teams,  The 2012 High School Baseball championships are being held at Power Park in Charleston and run through Saturday.  Thanks again Rocky!