Candidate pegs congressional bid on a platform of coal

GRUNDY, Va. – Now, he has it on his business card: Virginia coal miner, underground and surface.

It’s part of an effort by independent congressional candidate Jeremiah Heaton to win a constituency long held by U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, who’s served Virginia’s 9th District since 1983.

This week, Heaton is working in a coal mine to prove his understanding of the common man and his loyalty to the coal industry – a step he says Boucher, and Boucher’s Republican opponents, just aren’t willing to take.

“A component I feel is missing from leadership in America that has disappeared over the years is hands-on experience and real-world experience,” said Heaton, 33.

He has served in the Army, attended college on the GI Bill, and now owns a general store in Washington County.

“I don’t think I can adequately represent the district unless I understand energy policy from the face of the coal out,” he said.

He Who Carries the Coalfields

As an adage goes in Southwest Virginia politics, he who carries the coalfields, carries the district.

Heaton, working more than a mile into the ground, is striking at the heart of Boucher’s territory.

A lot has changed since 1982, when Boucher got his first substantial campaign donation, a check from the United Mine Workers.

Since then, the names of the companies have changed, as has the role of the union, but coal is still key to politics in the 9th.

Boucher, who points to a history of working simultaneously with the union and the companies, says coal is still “an economic mainstay” for the region, and points to his past accomplishments for the industry.

In 1990, he said, he helped construct regulations controlling sulfur dioxide emissions to favor Virginia coal over that produced in other regions. In 1995, he advanced proposals that resulted in $2.9 billion in tax benefits to the coal industry and a loan program for development of clean coal technology.

More recently, he said, he sponsored legislation that’s still pending to encourage development of liquid fuel from coal.

Last year, he became a chief architect of legislation proposed to regulate carbon dioxide by capping emissions and setting up a system to allow carbon polluters to trade pollution and offset credits.

The legislation, commonly referred to as cap and trade, has struck a nerve in the coalfields.

Boucher says carbon dioxide regulation is inevitable. By getting involved in the process, he said he’s won key concessions for industry to help mitigate its impact.

Now, he said, he’s working to further improve the greenhouse gas legislation and focusing on surface mining issues, particularly to preserve and streamline the permitting process in the face of changes being made by federal regulators.

He’s also signed onto a bill that would give Congress more time to enact greenhouse gas regulations before the Environmental Protection Agency steps in to regulate.

“I understand the needs of the coal industry and have worked actively with the coal industry’s leadership and with the United Mine Workers to make sure that those needs are effectively addressed, and will continue to do so,” Boucher said.

Seams of Discontent

In the heart of Virginia coal country, some don’t believe it.

“The administration in general I think is against coal production, and they’re really making it hard on small operators like us,” said Tony Lester, owner/operator of AB&J Coal Co. in Buchanan County. “You can’t survive but so long.”

Lester counts a half-dozen mines that have closed in just the last six months in his area, closures he attributes to what he believes is a mindset against coal since President Barack Obama took office last year.

He says more lawmakers and other people in positions of authority should make more of an effort to understand firsthand where their electricity comes from.

“Coal is here in Appalachia. The United States, whether they want to admit it or not, needs the coal, so people in Appalachia, that’s what we do is mine coal,” he said.

Gary Dotson, president of another small coal company, Cavalier Mineral Inc., said Boucher has a say in what’s going on in Washington. Dotson said he believes Congress and the Obama administration are opposed to coal.

“He’s not going to stand up for us now,” Dotson said of Boucher. “He either has to do one or the other, and I think he’s chosen to go the other way.”

He, too, said coal operators are plagued by outrageous violations – and if nothing is done, coal mines will be out of business before the next congressional election rolls around.

Pat Daniels, who sells work clothes to miners on U.S. 460, said she talks to a lot of people, and she doesn’t know who’s going to win the election this year.

“I have no idea, but it’s over for Boucher,” she said when asked who will win the seat.

Asked why, she said a four letter word: “C-O-A-L.”

The Heart of the District

Morgan Griffith, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, agrees. He said Boucher’s stance on cap and trade amounts to capitulation to an anti-coal agenda from the White House.

“He took the heart of the 9th District, and he cut it out,” Griffith said. “He capitulated to those who are against coal, and the last time I checked it was known as the Fighting 9th, not the Capitulating 9th.”

He said he’s willing to fight to defend the region’s way of life even if he loses in the first round.

“Here’s the bottom line: The people of Southwest Virginia are not stupid,” said Griffith, who currently serves as majority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates. “They understand that [Boucher] voted for cap and trade. They know that a congressman should be more powerful than a bureaucracy. If that’s not the case, then our country is in terrible trouble and we need to go back to the drawing board and rewrite the rules.”

Griffith points to his service in the state House, and his ability to move from a role as freshman delegate to majority leader in just six years. People with a proven track record of getting things done, he said, are needed in Washington to get the nation’s energy policy on the right track.

“It’s like we’ve been apologetic for the fact that we’re sitting on a natural resource,” he said of the current policy. “It would be like the king of Saudi Arabia going around apologizing and saying we’re gong to see what we can do to shut down oil production.”

He says because of his legislative background, he could hit the ground running in Washington to help turn things around quickly.

“It’s imperative that we have a change, or else the way of life in Southwest Virginia will be gone,” he said. “We have got to make sure we don’t turn Southwest Virginia into a national park where people come to see how things used to be done and all the people have to move away.”

Heaton, the independent, said he believes that he’s the most viable alternative to Boucher, mostly because Griffith is a lawyer and politician and the people are looking for something different – and because Griffith lives outside the district.

Campaign Season

Boucher said it’s his job this year to explain that what he did on cap and trade was for the sake of the coal industry – and he’ll repeat that message until it’s understood by his constituents.

Obama, he said, is doing a good job “on the big issues,” particularly in his handling of the Great Recession.

“I think in an election year, you hear all kinds of things, and my approach is to provide the facts and make sure that those facts are made available to people who ask questions and then trust people to make their own intelligent decisions, and that’s what I will do again next year,” he said last week.

Lester, one of the mine owners, says Boucher has missed something important – in the coalfields, coal is the big issue.

“If it wasn’t for coal, there would be no economy” in Appalachia, he said. “This is our bread and butter, and change needs to take place. Somebody needs to be a voice for the coal industry.”

Heaton, a Georgia native who’s lived in the 9th District for five years, believes he can be that voice – and says he’s seeking to learn how to do it from under the ground up.

Working more than a mile from the entrance of the Tech Leasing No. 2 Mine Monday, he was campaigning for Congress. But just as important this week, he said, “I’m a shovel operator.”

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701