Coal Conference Takes A Look at Mountaintop Removal

KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The recession is a golden opportunity to save the nation’s economy from destruction, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said Tuesday during the second day of this year’s Eastern Coal Council conference.

Carbon legislation soon up for debate in Congress could “make shambles out of this economy” by drastically increasing the price of energy, Manchin said, and all who see the need for coal should rally while economic concerns appear to trump environmental concerns in politics.

“This country is not going to be a world power without energy that is dependable and reliable, and that comes from coal,” Manchin said, adding that he is “fighting the good fight” for the economy.

He said the nation can only worsen its social ills by substantially increasing the cost of living for those who can least afford it, and sending jobs overseas to where energy is cheap and industry, therefore, better able to compete.

Coal, he said, must be used as a bridge until a “fuel of the future” is found. And politicians, he said, must realize the danger of environmental regulation that could cost America its industrial might.

“Now is the time to bring the facts out. If you want to win this war, the economy trumps everything right now and we’ve got a golden opportunity,” Manchin said. “As soon as this economy turns around, I guarantee you the environment will trump us and we’re dead.”

Manchin also defended mountaintop removal, a method of strip mining that involves blasting away mountain peaks; he said the flat land it creates allows for development that his state and the region wouldn’t have otherwise.

“If I say in West Virginia that we are basically using every bit of disturbed land to enhance the quality of life … how in the world can a person look at me and say that’s not responsible, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t because you’re altering it,” Manchin said.

“I have a piece of land that produces very little taxes if any, it takes 50 years before you can harvest the timber, and I’ve got no tax base for the school system… . How can anybody tell me that’s what’s best for the people of West Virginia?”

Manchin praised coal companies for helping to clear the roads after “horrendous” flooding in the state over the past few days that he said was caused not by extensive strip mining but by “an act of God.”

Also at the conference, Jim Martin, a senior vice president for Dominion, talked about what his company is doing to face the new reality that will come with regulation of carbon dioxide pollution and other laws impacting the energy industry.

“We have always believed in a very diverse portfolio,” Martin said.

Dominion is moving forward to build wind farms in Southwest Virginia even as it works on a 585-megawatt, coal-fired power plant under construction in Wise County, Va.

“We are having to prepare, and part of the reason we have the diversity of our fleet is to prepare for renewables legislation, to prepare for carbon legislation that may be coming our way,” Martin said.

He also said the number of power customers is growing along with energy use by existing customers – and in addition to the coal plant and wind farms in several states, the company is investing in conservation, making transmission improvements, building natural gas facilities and considering the addition of a third unit to an existing nuclear power station.

“We hope this is not the last coal plant built in North America, but it is certainly very, very difficult to get the financing to build it and get the permits to build it,” Martin said of the Wise County plant. “Companies have to have a lot of willpower to go through what they have to go through to get it done.”

Wind and solar power and conservation can’t make up for the baseload energy that comes from coal, he said, “and baseload is what keeps the lights on for our customers.”

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