PRINCETON — Currently, coal fuels 98 percent of the electricity West Virginians use, but local leaders worry proposed cap-and-trade legislation and a difficult permit process could snuff the Mountain State’s energy potential.

They fear the same proposals could idle the mining industry that has kept West Virginia’s economy rolling and still unearths the coal that produces 50 percent of the nation’s electricity.

Gov. Joe Manchin affirmed this week during a Princeton visit that coal is under attack on a national level.

Touting the perseverance of West Virginians and a hard-work ethic sometimes hard to find today, Manchin said West Virginia’s coal mines and the people who work inside them have propelled the nation through industrial revolutions, recessions, wars and more.

“We’ve done the heavy lifting,” he said.

The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security reports that West Virginia is the nation’s second largest coal-producing state. In 2008, the Mountain State’s 26 counties currently producing coal unearthed and processed 158 million tons of the fossil fuel.

West Virginia also leads the nation in coal exports, shipping more than 50 million tons to 23 countries abroad.

As of last report, the National Mining Association estimated West Virginia’s coal industry directly supported more than 88,000 jobs. The same organization predicts that each coal-related job also helps spur the need for about 3.5 more, thus expanding the reach of the resource even further.

But, the heavy lifting Manchin promoted is getting harder for the coal industry to bear, as legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions from power plants burdens utilities with fees and a new review process stalls mine permits under analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Manchin said he had been in contact with federal lawmakers asking them, “Just don’t put us in a position where we can’t even fight for a way to help this country stay strong.”

It isn’t just the nation that stands to lose if West Virginia coal use plummets.

“Our state budget is $3.2 billion,” state Del. Thomas “Mike” Porter said Tuesday. “Coal contributes one-third of that.”

In fact, a recent study by the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics Director Dr. Tom Witt and Marshall University Vice President of business and Economic Research Dr. Cal Kent found that the state reaps approximately $862 million annually directly from the coal industry. By the time coal miners and workers’ personal income taxes are figured in, that number surpasses the $1 billion Porter touted this week.

Those numbers could be in jeopardy if proposed cap-and-trade legislation dramatically lowers the amount of carbon emissions power plants can release as they burn coal to produce electricity and mine operations face years of waiting for EPA mining permits.

With the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill through the House of Representatives and up for debate in the Senate, turning on the lights and heating a home could soon become substantially more expensive.

Electricity produced from coal costs consumers an average of 6 cents per kilowatt hour. The national average of electricity from all other fuel sources is approximately 10 cents per kilowatt hour, but the price tag on alternative fuel is often higher.

In July, Appalachian Power Director of External Affairs Dave Langford told Princeton Rotarians that simply converting West Virginia’s power plants to reduce emissions by the required 78 percent would cost about $2 billion. The House bill would also require utility companies to begin shifting 20-25 percent of their electrical generation from fossil fuels to renewable energy, mounting the costs that will be passed on to consumers, on top of the 12.1 percent rate hike the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved earlier this year.

The decision on such laws ultimately rests with federal legislators, but the issues were clearly on the minds of West Virginia leaders this week.

“I told the governor up in Charleston that he needs to get up in Washington and tell his buddies to shut up on this cap-and-trade stuff,” Porter said.

At the nation’s capitol, Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller have pledged they will work tirelessly to protect West Virginia’s business and families who rely on the energy for a livelihood.

“Coal is an essential part of America’s energy future. It is absolutely irreplaceable as the energy source for half of our nation’s electricity. And, it is the single greatest hope our country has of ever achieving energy independence in a dangerous world,” Rockefeller wrote in a recent column.

The senator also reminded West Virginians to be realistic about the environment in which energy and climate change debate occur.

“Whether or not we all agree, the consensus in this country about climate change and greenhouse emissions is settled,” Rockefeller said. “And t\he opportunities always follow the consensus, which means every day we spend fighting with each other about the underlying science is a day we are not fighting together to secure our future.”

Rockefeller pledged to seek solutions that stabilize coal investments, prohibit haphazard or excessive regulations, protect consumers and rush development of new technology to capture and store the carbon that results from coal and other fossil fuel combustion.

“I haven’t yet seen federal energy legislation that achieves these goals and protects our way of life, and I won’t support any bill that threatens coal or West Virginia’s future,” Rockefeller said.

That could be a tall undertaking, with environmental groups calling for a complete ban on surface mining and environmental activists like Judy Bonds, of Coal River Mountain Watch calling for a federal takeover of the entire state.

“The federal government needs to come in and take over the state of West Virginia, all the way from the governor to the dog catcher,” Bonds told an Associated Press reporter recently.

Even actor Woody Harrelson joined the voices calling for the nation to quit coal this fall, telling “Playboy” Magazine that mountaintop removal mining is the “most egregious of all man’s activities,” outside of conflicts he called “oil wars.”

The attack from the former “Cheers” star prompted a written response from West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney, who said Harrelson seemed not to understand the issues surrounding mountains and pointed out that miners take great pride in restoring mine sites as near their original terrain as possible.

And, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts recently challenged Byrd and Rockefeller to hold up the federal health care reform bill, pending energy legislation that would protect West Virginia.

And, with an eye on Washington’s perception of coal as a “dirty fuel,” federal legislators and Manchin have vowed to work together and speak in a unified, “clear voice” to protect the state and its coal industry for the foreseeable future.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.