Editorial debate: EPA's terrible War on Coal and 2 realistic responses
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Stephen Reed: Eliminating coal an irresponsible idea
The new environmental regulations released weeks ago by the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency are not only a “War on Coal,” but they also are extraordinarily irresponsible and will affect millions of Americans who rely on the inexpensive electricity coal brings to the table.
The rules are the final, tougher regulations that were first announced by the EPA in 2012 and 2014, so they come as no surprise. Legal challenges are forthcoming from coal states like West Virginia.
Should this final attack by the EPA survive these legal challenges, more of what we already have seen during the Obama years will result: hundreds of coal-fired power plants will be shut down and many new coal plants will not be built. Welcome to Green America.
Just one mammoth problem: what is the existing substitute for coal in America’s energy portfolio?
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Charleston Gazette-Mail | Christopher J. Regan: Paying every price in W.Va. coal communities
John Kennedy, in his inaugural address, said that America would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, or oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” He need not have said this in West Virginia. West Virginia had already done that.
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Even so, West Virginia has never been rich. As ton after ton of coal came out of the earth to fuel America, and to save Europe from fascism and Nazism, the working people of West Virginia never profiteered — never made more than a bare living on the hard work of mining coal and working steel. The great fortunes made in timber and coal were never widely shared. Even at the height of the industry (in terms of employment), more than 50 years ago, poverty in West Virginia’s coalfields was a scandal, that President Kennedy himself brought to the nation’s attention, and worked to end, before his assassination.
For more than 150 years, West Virginia has done her part, to build, to preserve, and to defend America. Come to find out it’s not enough. Even more is being asked of our state, much of it on behalf of people who don’t live here.
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One thing that has to be recognized as we think our way through these changes is this: The country owes a literal and moral debt to our coalfield communities. West Virginia has done its part, and others have reaped the benefits, for a long, long time — that debt must be repaid.
We’re not talking about companies, owners and executives. West Virginia has minted a thousand millionaires in coal. No one owes them a thing. It remains a great scandal that executives, bankers and owners are trying to renege on retirement benefits and health benefits that coal miners were promised. It’s sickening to see millions, and tens of millions, taken by suits while working families suffer for want of the modest sums they worked hard to earn.
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We are not talking about a “handout,” any more than the retirements miners worked for and were promised are a “handout.” We’re talking about fair treatment and just compensation — an even playing field, and a chance to make it to the future. There are billions of dollars to be had to re-tool, re-train, and re-vitalize our state and West Virginia must seize them.
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Gazette editorial: Obama’s plan to help coal communities
Several coal corporations, including Alpha Natural Resources and Patriot Coal — have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks. Value of their stocks and bonds sank into the cellar. Numerous mines have closed, and thousands of miners have been laid off. Painful suffering is felt in Southern West Virginia coal counties, exacerbating existing problems of poverty and drug addiction.
Most of this slump is attributable to a flood of cheap natural gas, to depletion of good Appalachian coal seams, high company debt and the fall of coal prices. Yet West Virginia leaders blame it all on federal pollution controls and a supposed “war on coal.” They offer nothing to help devastated coal communities.
In contrast, the Obama administration proposes a wide array of efforts to rescue hard-hit coal towns. The White House 2016 budget contains a “Power Plus Plan” that would:
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All this sounds like the only sensible plan to resuscitate stricken counties. Too many West Virginia leaders, who don’t want to acknowledge to voters the long-predicted decline in coal jobs, are criticizing Obama’s plans instead of embracing them. Count the elected leaders who urge generation after generation to hitch their wagons to coal, even while coal companies continue to get out of pension, health care and pollution obligations in bankruptcy court.
Frustrated, the president complained about coal-state resistance:
“They will claim this is a ‘war on coal’ to scare up votes, even as they ignore my plan to actually invest in revitalizing coal country and supporting health care and retirement for coal miners and their families, and retraining those workers for better-paying jobs and healthier jobs.”
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