By Bill Archer
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
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BLUEFIELD — Coalfield legislators closed ranks Thursday and simultaneously introduced legislation in both houses of congress aimed at delaying the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing additional regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources including coal-fired power plants.
U.S. Senator John D. “Jay” Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced the “Stationary Source Regulations Delay Act,” in the U.S. Senate, and U.S. Reps. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., Frederick C. “Rick” Boucher, D-Va., and Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., jointly introduced the same legislation in the House of Representatives. Others in Congress, including U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, demonstrated support for the legislation and United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts expressed the union’s support for the legislation.
“We regard the Clean Air Act as unsuited to providing the technology incentives needed to advance carbon capture and storage and other advanced clean energy technologies that our nation will need to combat climate change,” Roberts was quoted in a UMWA press release as stating. He added that the EPA “appears in a rush to develop a slate of new rules that would hamper our economic recovery while depressing prospects for alleviating the crushing burdens of high unemployment.”
“Congressmen Rahall, Mollohan and I plan to work as hard as we can to pass this legislation,” Boucher said during a telephone interview Thursday afternoon from his office in Washington, D.C. “Having the EPA regulate emissions would be the absolute worst outcome for the coal industry.
“The entire reason I got into developing the climate change legislation that the House of Representatives passed last June was to prevent the EPA from having the final say in regulating greenhouse gas emissions,” Boucher said. “I was able to secure changes in the bill that would have enabled electric utilities to continue to use coal as the carbon capture technology became commercially viable. Those technologies are the future of the coal industry.
“The Senate has failed to act on that legislation and unless they do, it will not become law,” Boucher said. “We do not want the EPA regulating greenhouse gas emissions at stationary sources. The two-year time out, I believe, will give Congress time to develop a balanced program.” He added that he thinks President Barack Obama will be receptive to the Stationary Source Regulations Delay Act.
“We need to come back here next week and get to work to pass this bill,” Boucher said.
In his press release concerning the Senate bill, Rockefeller provided additional background information as to how the moment involved including a copy of the letter he, U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and six other senators sent to Lisa P. Jackson, administrator of the EPA. The letter addressed several concerns “relating to the potential regulation of greenhouse gases from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act.”
The senators emphasized eight key points of concern in the letter dated Feb. 19, and the tone of Jackson’s Feb. 22, letter responding to Rockefeller revealed her commitment to enforcing the EPA staff’s Dec. 15, 2009 determination that “greenhouse-gas emissions do endanger Americans’ health and welfare” and that “the U.S. Senate itself has twice passed, on a bipartisan basis, a resolution finding that greenhouse-gas accumulation from human activity poses a substantial risk of increased frequency and severity of floods and droughts.”
“Today, we took important actions to safeguard jobs, the coal industry, and the entire economy as we move toward clean coal technology,” Rockefeller was quoted as stating in a press release from his office. “Congress, not the EPA, must be the ideal decision-maker on such a challenging issue.” Rockefeller was also quoted as stating that the House and Senate “must set this delay in stone and give Congress enough time to consider a comprehensive energy bill to develop the clean coal technologies we need.”
Likewise, Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, issued a press release calling for congressional oversight in the climate change debate. “I am dead-set against the EPA’s plowing ahead on its own with new regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants,” Rahall was quoted as stating. “This is a reasonable and responsible legislation that will protect a vital industry — coal — and essential jobs for West Virginia and the nation.”
Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association said during a telephone interview that he was encouraged by the unified approach the coalfield legislators have taken to address the situation. “It’s a shame that it reaches the point when Congress has to take action like this to stop the EPA from hurting hard-working people,” Raney said.
Rick Taylor, president of the Pocahontas Coal Association said it appears as though Congress is responding to the concerns of the people. “There has been an out-cry from the public as well as from the coal industry about the situation that it was time for Congress to take drastic measures,” Taylor said.
– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
