2012 June Archive | Coal Tattoo

Some things are abundantly clear this week, following Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s Senate floor speech about the future of our state’s coalfields: In West Virginia, it’s big news — huge news, really — if one of our political leaders dares to tell a little bit of truth about the coal industry. And, of course, any politician brave enough to do that better be ready for a fierce response from coal and its many political allies.

Take, just for one example, the fit that Charleston Mayor Danny Jones threw on the radio:

He’s a very nice man and he’s very kind to people and very kind to me personally. But we’ve had enough of this guy. We don’t need his kind of leadership in West Virginia.

Other reactions have been just as predictable, including today’s editorial in the Daily Mail (which resorts to nonsense like the phrase “fear-mongering anticarbonites“) and the comments the Daily Mail published from West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts (who often seems to think his job is to be chairman of the state Republican party).

Remember now that Steve Roberts used a nasty misinformation campaign to try to derail the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s effort to help coal miners struggling with black lung disease, and also tried to hint in a not-so-subtle way (subscription required) that perhaps Sen. Byrd’s “Embrace the Future” speech about coal wasn’t really coming from the senator himself. So it was with Sen. Rockefeller this week, with a Politico story calling the speech the senator’s “swan song” and lots of people whispering about whether his coal comments were a sure sign he wasn’t going to seek another term in two years.

The West Virginia Coal Association issued its own statement responding to Sen. Rockefeller and when I spoke with coal lobby President Bill Raney, he made two points that I thought were interesting. I included this first part in a print story today:

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Thursday he was “extremely disappointed” in Rockefeller and that the industry’s public relations campaign is absolutely correct when it argues “Appalachia is just totally under assault” by the Obama administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“I don’t look at it as scare tactics,” Raney said. “I don’t think he’s talking about our ads. They aren’t scare tactics. We’ve tried our best to be very positive about this thing.”

OK … if the Coal Association isn’t trying to scare people, why are they promoting advertising spots like this one on their website?

The other thing Bill said that I found interesting was this:

I wish [Senator Rockefeller] had called and we could have had a conversation about the concerns he had.

Seriously now. At least twice previously, Sen. Rockefeller has called the coal lobby and industry executives out publicly for denying the science of global warming and using “scare tactics” in their campaign to block any reforms of mining practices or coal-related pollution.

It happened first in September 2010, when Sen. Rockefeller appears on stage over at the University of Charleston with Obama Energy Secretary Steve Chu. As we reported at the time:

Rockfeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, also blasted industry leaders and members of West Virginia media who promote the notion that global warming isn’t real.

“I’m concerned that powerful voices in West Virginia continue to argue that climate change is a myth,” Rockefeller said. “I’m not on the same bandwagon that some of you are.”

The senator said that climate change skeptics are harming West Virginia by putting off efforts to perfect and deploy CCS, giving natural gas more time to cut into coal’s market and hurt mining’s long-term viability.

“Burying one’s head in the sand is not a solution, and can only backfire,” Rockefeller said.

About five months later, Sen. Rockefeller took a similar message directly to Raney’s organization, in this speech to the annual West Virginia Coal Symposium. As we reported at the time:

Rockefeller said industry officials should not simply fight making changes in the way they operate, but focus on finding better ways to adapt.

“The coal industry is at a crossroads like never before — change is already upon us,” Rockefeller said. “And we have to find a way — urgently — to grab hold of our own future.”

But each time Sen. Rockefeller seemed about to really go out on a limb on coal issues, he would pull back, or hedge, or say something that was, frankly, a bit silly or that suggested he wasn’t really paying attention, or maybe was the victim of bad staff work. And despite Sen. Rockefeller’s recent statements about coal ash legislation, this week’s vote to stand up for EPA’s efforts to reduce mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants is really the first time the senator has put his vote on the line against the industry’s wishes on a specific issue.

Mr. President, I rise today in the shadow of one seemingly narrow Senate vote — the Inhofe resolution of disapproval of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules on mercury and air toxics — to talk about West Virginia. About our people – our way of life, our health, our state’s economic opportunity – and about our future.

Coal has played an important part in our past and can play an important role in our future but it will only happen if we face reality.

This is a critical and contentious time in the Mountain State. The dialogue on coal, its impacts, and the federal government’s role has reached a fevered pitch.

Carefully orchestrated messages that strike fear in the hearts of West Virginians and feed uncertainty about coal’s future are the subject of paid television ads, billboards, break room bulletin boards, public meetings, letters and lobbying campaigns.

A daily onslaught declares that coal is under siege from harmful outside forces, and that the future of the state is bleak unless we somehow turn back the clock, ignore the present and block the future.

West Virginians understandably worry that a way of life and the dignity of a job is at stake. Change and uncertainty in the coal industry is unsettling. But my fear is that concerns are also being fueled by the narrow view of others with divergent motivations – one that denies the inevitability of change in the energy industry, and unfairly leaves coal miners in the dust.

The reality is that many who run the coal industry today would rather attack false enemies and deny real problems than find solutions.

Instead of facing the challenges and making tough decisions like men of a different era, they are abrogating their responsibilities to lead. Consol’s Bobby Brown, was never timid, especially when he and the United Mine Workers turned around labor management relations in the central coal fields.

Scare tactics are a cynical waste of time, money and worst of all coal miners’ hopes. But sadly, these coal operators have closed themselves off from any other opposing voices and few dared to speak out for change – even though it’s been staring them in the face for years.

This reminds me of the auto industry, which also resisted change for decades. Coal operators should learn from both the mistakes and recent success of the auto industry. I passionately believe coal miners deserve better than they are getting from operators and West Virginia certainly deserves better too.

Let’s start with the truth. Coal today faces real challenges, even threats and we all know what they are:

— First, our coal reserves are finite and many coal-fired power plants are aging. The cheap, easy coal seams are diminishing, and production is falling – especially in the Central Appalachian Basin in Southern West Virginia. Production is shifting to lower cost areas like the Illinois and Powder River Basins. The average age of our nation’s 1,100-plus coal fired plants is 42.5 years, with hundreds of plants even older. These plants run less often, are less economic and the least efficient.

— Second, natural gas use is on the rise. Power companies are switching to natural gas because of lower prices, cheaper construction costs, lower emissions and vast, steady supplies. Even traditional coal companies like Consol are increasingly investing in natural gas over coal.

— Third, the shift to a lower carbon economy is not going away and it’s a disservice to coal miners and their families to pretend that it is. Coal company operators deny that we need to do anything to address climate change despite the established scientific consensus and mounting national desire for a cleaner, healthier environment.

Despite the barrage of ads, the EPA alone is not going to make or break coal. There are many forces exerting pressure and that agency is just one of them.

We need real world solutions to protect the future of coal.

Two years ago, I offered a “time out” on EPA carbon rules — a two-year suspension that could have broken the logjam in Congress and given us an opportunity to address carbon issues legislatively.

But instead of supporting this approach, coal operators went for broke when they demanded a complete repeal of all EPA authority to address carbon emissions forever. They demanded all or nothing, turned aside a compromise and in the end got nothing.

Last year, they ran exactly the same play, demanding all or nothing on the cross-state air pollution rule – refusing to entertain any middle ground, and denying even a hint of legitimacy for the views on the other side. And they lost again, badly.

So here we are with another all-or-nothing resolution destined to fail. This foolish action wastes time and money that could have been invested in the future of coal. Instead, with each bad vote they give away more of their leverage and they lock in failure.

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