President Barack Obama would be wise to heed the advise he received last week from Gov. Joe Manchin, and nine other governors from energy producing states.
Manchin pulled no punches during last week’s meeting, and emphasized more than once to Obama that coal has been unfairly “vilified” by some around the country, including public leaders.
He stressed that if the administration makes it harder to mine coal, the entire country will suffer. Unfortunately, Manchin and the nine governors got no pledge from Obama that stalled mining permits would be approved anytime soon. Instead, they were only told by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson that some type of action would be forthcoming. She didn’t provide specific details.
Obama apparently disagreed with Manchin that coal has been painted as a villain by his administration. Still, Manchin told the Register-Herald after the meeting that he felt he had a “good dialogue” with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and he left the meeting believing he got his message across to the president and vice president.
Maybe he did. Shortly after the meeting, Obama announced he was creating an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage to develop a comprehensive and coordinated federal strategy to speed the development and deployment of clean coal technologies.
In a White House press release, Obama said the nation’s economy will continue to rely on the availability and affordability of domestic coal for decades to meet it energy needs. He said the advances in clean coal technology are necessary to reduce pollution in the meantime.
Obama called on the creation of five to 10 commercial demonstration projects to be up and running by 2016.
Folks in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia don’t object to the development of new clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage techniques. In fact, we would welcome at least two or more of these commercial demonstration projects right here in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
However, it is important for the administration to remember that it will take time to deploy these new clean coal technologies. By the administration’s own admission, the commercial demonstration projects wouldn’t be ready until 2016. In the meantime, we can’t simply say coal is dirty — and we certainly can’t stop mining it.
It’s time for the administration to embrace coal and stop maligning it. We will cautiously look at last week’s announcement by the president as a step in the right direction.
However, sometimes actions can speak louder than words. And we learned Friday that Obama’s fiscal year budget for 2011 is proposing an $11 million cut for state surface coal mining permitting programs. It seems the president is saying one thing, and doing something else when it comes to coal.
We are confused and unhappy by this mixed message he is sending the Mountain State.
Editorials
February 5, 2010
Mountain State coal — Manchin sends a message to Obama, but is he listening?
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