Opinion
Coal must be significant part of realistic U.S. energy policy
It seems the perfect environment to pick sides and fight.
Energy prices, though they have receded some in recent weeks, spiked to push gasoline over $4 a gallon during much of the summer. There is legitimate concern about what heating costs will do to family budgets this winter. Of course, higher energy costs are felt throughout the general economy, as well.
Throw in the charged atmosphere of a presidential election year in the United States.
We’ve all heard the slogans.
• Increase domestic drilling, including off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in Alaska.
• The time is right to get serious about plentiful oil shale in the West.
• Let’s get moving on wind and solar power.
• Do everything possible to conserve, such as using mass transit, keeping you car engine tuned, checking the pressure in your tires, slowing down and consolidating your trips.
• Push for higher fuel-mileage standards.
• Unleash technology to develop alternative, non-fossil fuels and make them marketable.
• Don’t forget the potential of nuclear energy.
All sound ideas if they could somehow be tied together in a comprehensive energy package, something the country’s leaders have failed miserably to accomplish for more than 30 years.
Short-term political gains from battles over specifics have to end if the country is going to have sufficient, reasonably priced energy supplied to be poised for sustainable growth.
The United States must look at its energy future realistically, and that includes taking advantage of one of its most abundant resources and one in which West Virginia is rich — coal.
West Virginia, as The Associated Press reported last week, is the second-largest producer of coal in the United States. The industry plays a huge role in the state’s economy, employing about 20,000 miners along with tens of thousands of workers in related fields.
A nonpartisan think tank affiliated with the statewide nonprofit A Vision Shared issued its first-ever policy report on coal last week. It showed that coal is the largest part of the nation’s energy profile — now providing roughly 52 percent of the nation’s energy — and will retain its importance.
Those who believe what they label “dirty coal” can be quickly phased out of the nation’s energy aren’t look at the matter realistically.
“I know there are many people who say, ‘Let’s stop using coal completely,’ but those aren’t the facts of life,” said Gov. Joe Manchin, who spoke at a conference where the report was released by the group Imagine West Virginia.
“It’s so very encouraging to hear an approach to an energy policy that recognizes the central importance of coal,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
Allan Tweddle, a member of the state Public Energy Authority, said the medium-range economic picture for coal is complicated, citing estimates that so-called clean coal technology may cause the price of coal to rise and the move of some countries such as Canada and Germany away from coal.
“The cost of wind power and solar power is coming down, constantly,” he said.
There is no question that alternative energy will be part of he nation’s future. As an example in this state, the environmental group Coal River Mountain Watch has an initiative that seeks to encourage Massey Energy to stop plans to create a mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia.
The group says the ridges would be put to greater use if they were developed as a wind farm than if they were mined for coal.
“I don’t want to have a debate on whether windmills are better than coal or whether coal is better than windmills,” Raney said. “We need them all.”
That’s the approach the country needs to take.
- Opinion
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Yes to Second Amendment, no to state sales tax holiday on gun sales
Every once in a while, our state Legislature creates new legislation that leaves many of us in the general public scratching our heads.
Such is the case of The Second Amendment Appreciation Act which reserves the second weekend in October as an amnesty period during which there would be no 6 percent state sales tax on the purchase of pistols and rifles.
Don’t get us wrong. We fully believe in the right to bear arms.
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Student protestors get great civics lesson
Senior projects may be an issue for East Fairmont High School seniors, but we believe a large group of them demonstrated that they were paying attention in civics class.
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North Marion girls impressive in defending championship
The North Marion girls’ basketball team this past season was quite predictable.
It was probably only a few minutes after the Huskies won the 2009 Class AAA championship in the state high school tournament in Charleston that the first fan predicted that “we’ll win it again next year.”
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Elders deserve more relief via in-home care funding
In February, the Gazette reported that more than 900 fragile West Virginia elders had qualified for in-home care, but were getting no help because the Manchin administration says there is no money left for that program.
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Mine officials’ swift action may have saved lives
While it was hard to watch Patriot Coal Corp.’s Federal No. 2 Mine halt production a few times over the past month, we have to believe that swift action on the part of mine, union and federal officials may have saved lives.
Stopping mining at the operation means placing a financial burden on the miners who work there, we understand, but conditions were such that an explosion like the one that took the lives of 12 miners just four years ago in Sago was possible.
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Voters: Scrap it and rewrite it
A few weeks.
A lot can happen in a few weeks. Just think, a few weeks ago, we were all lamenting the snow and poor road conditions. Now we’ve had enough spring-like weather over the past couple of days that the only snow left is the clumps in parking lots from the plows. And even those are melting faster than a Dairy Creme Corner ice cream cone on a hot July day.
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Area women’s basketball programs have come long way
For many years, women’s basketball just seemed to many observers to be just something for young girls and women to do prior to the “real games” being played by boys and men. It took a long time before women’s games were even covered by the media — and that includes radio and television as well as newspapers.
Fortunately, opinions have changed over the years.
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City must practice responsible fiscal policy
The employees of the City of Fairmont have a reason to celebrate.
For the first time in three years, since a water crisis crippled the city and its finances in the early months of 2007, employees will get one-time pay increases worth about $750.
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Laws needed to regulate development of resources
The Marcellus shale formations, which extend throughout the Eastern United States, remain a largely untapped reserve of natural gas. And that makes it a prime target for energy development.
But local legislators want a little regulation when it comes to the extraction of the natural resource. Drillers tap millions of gallons of water from streams and rivers so as to bore into the rock formations that trap the state’s abundant reserves of natural gas.
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Broadband access vital to state’s future
The Mountain State is receiving $126.3 million in federal stimulus funding for a proposed statewide broadband infrastructure project.
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Yes to Second Amendment, no to state sales tax holiday on gun sales
