The Times West Virginian

Opinion

December 27, 2009

Sanity, reality about nation’s use of coal must prevail

We’ve all heard the extremes in the debate over climate change.

On one side are those who believe human activity — including the burning of coal and other fossil fuels — is a major contributor to warming temperatures and that the Earth is in great peril.

On the other side are those who question if there is warming taking place at all. Even if there is, they contend, humans are not the reason, and they can do little about it.

We hope that the debate in coming months and years will be marked by sanity and reality — not extreme positions either way.

When effective, reliable, cost-efficient renewable energy is fully developed, it will lead to riches and power beyond the imagination. Until then, coal and other fossil fuels are not going away and must be used in the wisest manner possible.

Coal is clearly under attack from many quarters.

At this month’s Governor’s Energy Summit at Stonewall Resort, regulatory and legislative challenges were characterized by Chris Hamilton of the West Virginia Coal Association as “perhaps more serious, more threatening than they’ve ever been.”

At the top of the list is regulation of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of coal combustion. The Environmental Protection Agency, in fact, has declared that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant, which means the EPA could regulate it without the approval of Congress.

“No one who works in the coal industry should have any illusions about this. The impact of EPA regulations will mean a relatively swift and painful reduction in coal production and coal jobs. That is the last thing anyone related in our industry should want,” said Cecil Roberts, international president of United Mine Workers of America.

Then there is federal “cap and trade” legislation that narrowly passed the House last summer. West Virginia Congress members Alan B. Mollohan, Shelley Moore Capito and Nick Rahall voted against the legislation.

Action is pending in the Senate, and West Virginia Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller have expressed their concerns.

In the midst of the attacks on coal, West Virginia is making a move to become one of the nation’s leaders in clean-coal technology.

The latest example is an announcement of $344 million in federal stimulus funding to American Electric Power (AEP) to continue its clean-coal project at Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County.

Earlier this year, AEP demonstrated that carbon capturing and sequestering (CCS) is possible with a demonstration at the Mountaineer plant in New Haven. Now, AEP will be one of three companies in the country charged with expanding that technology and developing a working model for the rest of the nation and world.

West Virginia, given the choice to complain or lead, is choosing to show that coal can be used responsibly as a key component of the nation’s energy mix for decades to come.

Gov. Joe Manchin believes that within 30 to 50 years, there will be another energy resource in America as cost-effective, useful and abundant as coal is today. But until that happens, he said, the nation’s leaders should be finding ways to promote and perfect clean-coal technology instead of trying to eliminate the industry.

“There are greenhouse gases and global warming. I’m not going to argue that. I will accept that as being accurate,” he said. “But we should put money necessary, as a nation, into research to find the technology to burn coal cleaner and retrofit existing coal plants and industries that use it.”

That’s the sane and realistic approach for a nation that depends on coal for more than 50 percent of its energy needs and has an enormous supply of the natural resource.

There is simply no replacement on the horizon.

National policy that wouldn’t take advantage of developing environmentally friendly ways of mining and using coal is simply doomed for failure.

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