Dawn Miller
Editorial Page Editor
Charleston Gazette
Two recent Gazette articles provide a glimpse of contrasting alternatives for the future of West Virginia. On December 2nd, Ken Ward discussed Gov. Joe Manchin’s goal of building several coal-to-liquid plants in West Virginia. On December 4, the Gazette reported on layoffs in the Kanawha Valley chemical industry and the loss of taxes and high-paying jobs here. The latter story illustrates what could happen to our beloved West Virginia if anti-mining activists and global warming alarmists are successful in pursuing their anti-growth, anti-business agenda.
Gov. Manchin is right on target in his efforts to lead the state and nation toward energy independence by building coal-to-liquid plants in West Virginia. Manchin’s plan, if given a chance, could very well boost our state from its perpetual economic doldrums into a place of full-employment, economic vibrancy and technological leadership. His plan plays to our natural strengths.
First, West Virginia has an abundance of resources – quality coal reserves, an established energy infrastructure and a trained workforce – to capitalize on advanced coal technologies. These plants would spur investment in West Virginia’s economy by adding well-paying jobs to a state in dire need of economic growth engines.
Second, new sources of oil are becoming more difficult – and expensive -- to find and extract. And, make no mistake about this, oil will become more precious in the future as developing nations like China and India increase their voracious consumption. Our country’s oil pipeline from the Middle East is by no means guaranteed. Continued reliance on a chaotic region for our nation’s energy needs is misguided at best, particularly when West Virginia holds the natural resources and technology to lessen this dependence.
Unfortunately, a handful of very vocal and obstructive environmental activists work tirelessly to block coal mining at every level. These extremists seek to rip out the very backbone of our state’s economy at a time when the coal industry can be tapped to enhance our economic well-being and lessen our nation’s dependence upon foreign oil.
The economy that would necessarily result from the successful efforts of the anti-mining extremists would be reflected in a series of news headlines like the December 4 article about the chemical industry. Mining operations would shut down because permits and valley fills necessary for mining would be unobtainable; businesses like equipment suppliers, and even the local restaurants, hotels and gas stations, would begin to fail; real estate and home values would fall; tax revenues would fall; and the best and brightest of our state would leave to pursue economic opportunity elsewhere. Energy prices would rise dramatically. This is not a desperate apocalyptic scenario. If groups like the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club have their way, this scenario will become a dreadful reality. The environmentalists really offer only objections; their empty rhetoric offers no viable solutions, ideas or opportunities. Their success offers only economic loss and a continued reliance on oil from the Middle East.
While the environmentalists will retort that West Virginia could replace coal-related jobs with tourism, that claim is naïve – if not entirely disingenuous. Although tourism can and should be part of West Virginia’s economic growth, those service sector jobs generally provide wages well below those of the natural resources industry. Many of us want our children to find attractive jobs and settle in this beautiful state, but that will not happen if the jobs available won’t support their families.
I prefer a vision where we use our abundant coal resources to create a more-diversified economy through coal-to-liquid plants and become a national hub for the production of fuel to diminish our foreign entanglements. For these reasons, it is imperative that all West Virginians get behind Governor Manchin’s plan to help our state capitalize on our abundant natural resources and help our country try to achieve at least a modicum of energy independence.
Sincerely,
Roger Nicholson
Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel
Tom Eblen,
Managing Editor
Lexington Herald-Leader
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s anti-coal industry bias was evidenced once again in Andy Mead’s Dec. 6 story on the recently-filed lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking to block a permit at ICG Hazard’s Thunder Ridge Surface Mine in Leslie County. The story set forth prominently and at great length the position of the anti-mining extremists, even including outlandish characterizations of the company’s mining by a Kentucky Waterways Alliance member. However, the reporter ignored International Coal Group’s detailed response to the lawsuit and to the environmentalists’ bombastic press release, stating simply that the company would defend its permit.
Your readers should receive some very pertinent facts. Contrary to the Sierra Club disingenuous media statements, ICG Hazard at its Thunder Ridge mine has already reclaimed more than 2,500 previously-mined acres. In connection with its environmental reclamation program and the federal Office of Surface Mining’s Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative program, the Company planted more than 96,000 hardwood and other native species trees in 2007 alone. Reclaimed mine lands at Thunder Ridge host abundant wildlife, including a new, growing population of elk.
ICG subsidiary companies employ more than 1,100 people in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the coal industry supplies fuel for more than 50% of the nation’s electrical needs. The Herald-Leader’s reporting reveals its bias for the agenda of the environmental extremists. Unfortunately, the anti-mining extremists appear to be vacuous quislings, whose goals, if met, would betray those who they profess to protect through destruction of a core industry, sizeable job loss, reduction of tax revenues that fund public roads and schools, and dramatically increased electricity costs. We merely ask that the Herald-Leader report the news in a fair, balanced and accurate way.
Sincerely,
Roger L. Nicholson
Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel