A coal industry representative spoke to local business leaders at last week’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon giving a stark warning that increasing federal government intervention could soon cripple the economies of West Virginia and surrounding states.
Gene Kitts, senior vice-president of Mining Services with International Coal Group and Chairman of the West Virginia Coal Association’s Environmental/Technical Committee, was guest speaker at the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon held last Thursday at K.S. of West Virginia.
Kitts’ presentation was titled “Coal Industry…The New Challenge,” and detailed recent actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency to block surface mining in West Virginia.
According to Kitts, surface mining, also known as mountaintop mining, accounts for 42-percent of all coal production in West Virginia. Surface mining directly employs 6,178 people across the state, with another 30,000 jobs indirectly related to this mining. Across Central Appalachia, surface mining activity provides 77,000 jobs. In relation to state revenue, surface mining generated $172.5 million out of a total $410 million paid into the Coal Severance Tax fund last year.
Kitts said recent EPA activities have been inspired by an environmental study which concluded “certain macroinvertibrates (mayflies) were not found in downstreams reportedly due to elevated dissolved solids.” Dissolved solids are caused by weathering of fresh rock outcroppings generated in surface mining.
Kitts said that mayflies, which have a lifespan of roughly six hours, are basically fish food and used as a barometer for water quality. According to Pitts, the EPA considers the absence of three species of mayflies as a significant enough impact to stop mining despite analysis by natural resources officials that fish populations in those streams remains healthy.
“What are we being protected from is the bottom line,” Kitts said.
Kitts said the EPA has used this study to object to and hold up mining permits throughout the state.
On January 20, the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the EPA used this study to file an objection to a surface mine project along the King Coal Highway in Mingo County, a highway vital to economic activity in the region.
“To say that that’s bad says that you don’t know squat about Southern WV,” he said.
Kitts said that the federal government was using suspect science to block mining permits for purely political reasons.
“They’re trying to set a bar so high they can’t be met,” Kitts said.
He added that recent strong-arm tactics by the EPA are even in violation with federal court rulings outlining the standards by which the EPA can object to mining permits.
Kitts said that it’s time for states to begin standing up to the federal government. “Do we choose mayflies or do we choose jobs?”
Regarding the proposed cap and trade legislation being discussed in Congress, Kitts said this will also negatively impact local industry.
“We’re being asked to volunteer to take a run and jump off a cliff with the promise that the government will research, develop and provide a parachute,” he said of the bill.
Kitts said the proposed legislation could reduce global temperature by 0.4 degrees by 2050, “but what are we going to do for our economy?”
He said the legislation will cause heavy industry to flee the United States.
“The middle class in this country depends on good industrial jobs,” he said, “and these will be sacrificed to other countries like India and China who decide to forego this legislation…this is not leadership, it is politics of the worst kind.”
He said the government’s proposal to shift industrial jobs into “green jobs” would not provide relief for those who may lose their jobs as a result of the legislation.
Kitts became somewhat emotional when relating on a personal level the challenge facing many people he knew who had devoted their entire life to the coal industry and could be forced out of their job as a result of government intervention.
“Don’t expect us to trade a $70,000-a-year job for a $20,000-a-year ‘green job,’” he said.
He encouraged people to visit his organization’s website, www.facesofcoal.org, for more information on the importance of coal to the American economy and to also counter some of the voices currently being heard on the topic.
“The voices that you are hearing are not those of reason and practicality,” he said. “To have other people from outside who have no idea what’s going here come in and tell us how to run things is just wrong.”
The next Chamber of Commerce luncheon is scheduled for Thursday, October 29, at the Jackson County Development Authority offices. According to Chamber Director Wes Harvey, representatives from the Small Business Association will be on hand to speak and interact with the group.
For more information, contact Harvey by email at wharvey@jacksonchamberwv.com or via phone to 304-373-1117.
