By George Hohman
Charleston Daily Mail
The president of the West Virginia Coal Association lashed out at President Barack Obama's administration for not caring about the Appalachian coal industry.
"The Obama administration cares nothing about coal operations in Appalachia," Bill Raney told students and alumni Tuesday during a presentation at the University of Charleston's Graduate School of Business. "It's a political statement but it's something I believe and I believe I can back it up." Raney said the Obama administration tries to halt mining at every turn.
"Our biggest problem is permits with the EPA," Raney said, referring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Permits have been hung up since the Obama administration took office. I think they've issued four. They've absolutely stopped them. They've relied on water quality as the reason.
"They want us to treat water at the head of streams for selenium. We're held to a selenium standard that's 10 times greater than what drinking water is. That makes absolutely no sense.
Regulators are also tightening rules regarding total dissolved solids in streams. "People are being required to build reverse osmosis systems that cost tens of millions of dollars in the most remote sections of the state," Raney said.
"The way coal is mined is dictated by geology, topography," he said. "Extremists will tell you they only want to get rid of mountaintop removal mining operations. The truth is they're attacking valley fills and that attacks the entire industry."
Raney said the Obama administration seems intent on requiring coal-burning power plants to capture and entomb carbon dioxide emissions because the emissions cause global warming.
"I'm not prepared to debate that, I'm not qualified to answer," Raney said. "It seems to be a mantra of the Obama administration that we need to do that. But is climate change so substantial that we need to punish our people? I think journalists and the media have trumped it up to be a big problem. I think we need to know more before we take dramatic steps to take peoples' jobs."
The federal Mining Safety and Health Administration recently quit approving permits that allow deep cuts in coal seams underground, Raney said. "That's forcing us to move equipment twice as often as previously," he said.
Raney said, "The opponents of the coal industry are always talking about what's wrong with it but you don't hear many answers or alternatives."
"I think we will eventually get to a zero-emissions, coal-fired power plant," he said. "I think ultimately that's what we've got to get to."
"We think there's an effort here to raise the price of electricity made from burning coal and natural gas to a point it has equity with the cost of wind power, solar power."
Raney said West Virginia is an energy state and should be proud of it.
"We're the second-largest producer of electricity on the entire national grid," he said. "Pennsylvania is first. We're paying 4 to 5 cents a kilowatt-hour for electricity. They're paying 18 cents a kilowatt hour in Manhattan."
"Our biggest problem is we've got to convince the people of the northeast why this industry is significant to them," Raney said. "Forty percent of the electricity on the East Coast comes from West Virginia coal. People in the northeast don't understand their standard of living depends on miners in West Virginia.
"I don't know if we'll ever achieve energy independence but we can achieve energy security."
Raney praised Gov. Joe Manchin. The coal association recently endorsed Manchin in his bid for the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by the late Sen. Robert Byrd.
"Our governor has been in the face of the EPA," Raney said. "I've seen him put a finger in the chest of the people in Philadelphia, saying our people are more important than a bunch of flies. He's gone to Philadelphia, to Washington, D.C."
Raney said he believes the industry's future is bright, despite the challenges. "It's going to be a bridge to wind, solar, and zero-emissions power plants over the next 20, 30, 40 years," he said. "When you have more than half of the electricity made with coal, you can't suddenly turn that switch off.
"We've got to be proud, good about what we do, continue to improve," he said. "We've got 200 years of reserves here."