Rahall to coal miners: ‘I get it. I get it. I get it.’
Congressman Nick J. Rahall has represented West Virginia’s southern coalfields in Washington for a long, long time. He won his first congressional race in 1976. The closest he’s come to losing since then was in 1990, when insurance agent Mariane Brewster got 48 percent of the vote.
Typically, Rahall’s election returns come down about 2-1 in his favor.
But if you didn’t fully understand how much of a corner Rahall is painted into on the mountaintop removal issue until this morning, you need to listen to his appearance this morning with Hoppy Kercheval on MetroNews Talkline.
At one point, to show his loyalty to coal miners, Rahall resorted to searching the wall of his Washington, D.C., office and reading from a plaque or certificate he got a few years back when the United Mine Workers made him an honorary member of the union.
All Hoppy did was ask the congressman what he thought of how coal industry supporters had shouted down environmentalists at last night’s Army Corps of Engineers public hearing on streamlined permits for mountaintop removal. Hoppy wondered if Rahall thought things got a little out of hand, what with anybody who disagreed with the industry having a darned tough time getting a word in among the yelling and jeering. The congressman responded:
… The point I’m trying to make is that I’m on their side. I am not anti-coal. I recognize the need to provide jobs for our people. I am with their frustration. I understand it.
And then, Rahall said:
I get it. I get it. I get it.
I just wish there was a little more understanding of the position I’m in.
So just what position is that?
Well, Rahall is chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees public lands and a variety of environmental matters — everything from fisheries to, yes, enforcement of the 1977 federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. And among national environmental groups, Rahall is not only considered a pretty reliable vote, but also a leader on many issues those groups care about. Consistently, Rahall votes nearly three-quarters of the time with the “pro-environment” votes ranked by the League of Conservation Voters.
At the same time, Rahall’s 3rd Congressional District of West Virginia makes up the heart of the state’s southern coalfields, the area where most of the big mountaintop removal has and is going on. And Rahall has supported mountaintop removal, though he has sometimes been critical of certain permitting practices, since as the failure of agencies to come up with a clear definition of approximate original contour or enforce post-mining land development requirements.
And now, while Gov. Joe Manchin is attacking the Obama administration for being out to kill all surface mining, Rahall is taking a different course, urging U.S. EPA to come up with clear rules, but not laying down a verbal barrage at the agency.
Rahall tried to explain that to Hoppy:
Just publicly going out and calling an agency names or beating up on an agency is not going to work when you go the next day or the next week to that agency and ask for their help. That’s just human nature.
In that interview, Rahall reminded us that EPA previously released for issuance more than three dozen mining permits it had earlier expressed concerns about. As Rahall noted, that fact has gotten lost as the coal industry complains about EPA’s plans to more closely scrutiny 79 other pending permits:
I don’t believe it’s EPA’s aim to stop mountaintop mining.
Rahall said he and other members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation have complained for years about what they say is a broken permitting process at the Corps of Engineers and EPA. But, he said legislative efforts to try to impose a fix would be a bad idea, given that there’s a bipartisan bill pending in Congress that aims to make the Clean Water Act tougher — not easier — for mining companies:
… I’m trying to prevent it from being made tougher. If we start tinkering with the Clean Water Act, you’re opening up a Pandora’s Box …
So on the one hand, Rahall is criticized by coal miners for not taking a strong enough stand in favor of mountaintop removal. Rahall keeps working to convince them he’s representing them well.
On the other hand, Rahall is dismissed by West Virginia environmental groups as not standing up to coal on strip-mining issues (though it’s worth pointing out he’s worked tirelessly to protect many of the state’s most beautiful places with public lands laws).
But one thing that Rahall didn’t mention on the radio today, though … as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, he is indeed charged with overseeing the Interior Department’s enforcement of federal strip mining laws. Rahall knows a thing or two about those laws, having served on the conference committee that wrote SMCRA during his first term in 1977.
More than two years ago, Rahall held hearings to mark the law’s 30th anniversary. Coalfield residents testified about a variety of serious problems.
I’m unaware of any specific steps that Congressman Rahall has taken to see that those problems are resolved.
14 comments
Ireally think that miners should not be labeled as unenlightened, as if only those highly educated can grasp the multifactoral issues in WV. It might be better to understand that fear blinds everyone and if you cannot be involved in trying to help each side deal with their fears, then you cannot look past your focus on the problem and see the solutions.
Well said, Paula: “fear blinds everyone.”
Personally, I feel that Nick Rahall has shown both courage and common sense in responding to attacks on the Obama Administration and their actions about MTR and coal mining.
And Ken’s take on this seems pretty “fair and balanced” to me.
Scott & Teresa, don’t forget that coal industry hasn’t done much for this state, no matter what they claim. Look at the poverty and illiteracy in the coalfields. After 100 years of coal mining, that’s what’s left: a lot of trash, poverty and illiteracy.
West Virginians have all been affected by coal. We all have a right to object to environmental destruction in our state. Changing the permitting process will not take your jobs away! Nevertheless, coal jobs will be phased out. It is an unsustainable industry.
I don’t see anymore trash, poverty or ignorance in the coal fields that I see in the hollows around the Charleston Metro area and there are hollows there, or in the center of Charleston and Huntington. Poverty and ignorance are not limited to a geographic region and statements like that are biased, and stereotypical. Trash is not generated by the mining industry. What makes you think the industry hasn’t done anything in the communities or the state? Its statements like that, which is part of the problem. Call the governors office and ask what industry pays the most into the state coffers.
Call the DEP office and ask them how many dollars they receive from violations from the coal industry, and how many of their employees rely on the coal industry for their jobs. Call the miners health and safety office and ask how much they rely on this industry. If good paying jobs are not to be considered as “doing something” for the state and communities, what is? What do you expect the industry to do? Call the county commissions in Boone and Logan counties and ask them how much they receive from severance taxes. Call the school boards and ask how much money and time have been donated to individual schools over the years. What is the tax base for these counties? What is the per capita income for these counties? What has Union Carbide done for the state, what about Bayer, what about Doupont. What about Chesapeake, What about Columbia and Cabot ? What great things have they done? They have pumped good wages in the economy the same as the coal industry and don’t say they haven’t caused any environmental damage, don’t even go there.
Teresa — You really should “call the governors office and ask what industry pays the most into the state coffers.” You might be surprised: it’s not coal.
There may have been a time when it was true, but it wasn’t any time recently. Coal is just one of many parts of the West Virginia economy.
Trying to be as objective as possible about it, my best estimate is between ‘99 and ‘08 the coal industry averaged 6.7% of W.Va. GDP:
http://www.wvablue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4991
Also, check out employment statistics by industry in West Virginia:
http://workforcewv.org/lmi/datarel/DRLMI134.HTM
Almost every single other industry on that list has more employees than “mining and logging.”
To put it further in perspective, you could double the number of coal mining jobs and we’d still have people unemployed in the state. (There are more people unemployed in West Virginia today than there are people employed by coal companies.)
Coal in West Virginia has decline for a long time. Are we going to keep digging in or are we going to lift up our heads and start working harder to diversify the economy so the next round of laid off coal miners can find a job?
If you look at say, census stats, Teresa, you’ll see poverty and illiteracy are much higher in the coalfields. Mingo County has an adult population where under 60% are high school grads. In McDowell County the rate is 50%. Half the adults in McDowell County don’t have a high school education!
I withdraw my comment about trash, although from personal experience I can say there is much less in other parts of WV than in the coalfields (such as the Greenbrier river vs. Twelve-Pole).
I believe the coal industry has taken a huge amount of our state’s wealth away; what they have given back is far less than it should have been.
What I expect the industry and its supporters to do is to admit that evaluating permitting processes is not shutting down the industry–and to admit that the changes made to the environment by mining are not insignificant, and should not be oversight-free.
None of this means I plan to give up electricity, so don’t bother with that line of argument. I would far rather my government support sustainable energy sources than coal. That’s how I hope my children will get their electricity.
Clem,
These are great comments. I think there is a mythology around coal in Appalachia–as well as entrenched political power–that gives the industry an out-of-size influence on the discourse.
The myths around coal make it hard for people to discern the economic realities. You need to get those points about the size of coal in the labor pool and as a percentage of GDP into short statements that everyone can repeat, that everyone knows them by heart.
Ken posted a Sierra Club study a couple days ago. I think the study missed the important (and much more relevant) points that you raise.
As long as there is destructive surface mining happening in Appalachia, there will be few alternative economic opportunities. The MTR debate seems to be about someone’s gain vs. someone else’s heartbreak and pain. And the gains seem to go to but a few.
Mr. Rahall needs to recuse himself from voting and speaking as a memeber of the T and I Committee on this issue. He has basically admitted conflict of interest by stating publicly that he is on the side of the regulated industry in question. That is the bottom line. Government officials should be held to the same standards as government employees in cases such as this. If his interest is in defending and promiting the interests of mining, miners, and the coal mining industry, then he must recuse himself from any hearings having to do with regulating that industry. That is the only fair, just, and democratic way out of the box he has placed himself in.
Clem:
Just a clarification - though coal production in WV is off about 9% from what it was 10 years ago, it has risen nearly every year since 2002. That’s not exactly in “decline for years.”
Check the facts here at the WVOMSHT website: http://www.wvminesafety.org/STATS.HTM. Click on coal production and employment per month.
It’s likely there will be somewhat of a decline this year due to the recession, but no reason to assume it won’t rebound int 2010 and beyond as the economy comes back.
Red Desert, you’re right with the “someone’s gain vs. someone else’s heartbreak and pain.” And that will happen if MTR goes away as well, to many more than just a few.
The coal industry reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Remember how fooled all the people were, while all the time it was just a little man behind the curtain pulling levers. It’s the same way with the coal industry. They have made people believe that they are all powerful but in truth it is just a myth.
I believe that the industry people are seeing the end of the long dark tunnel that they created, keep people afraid, keep them in the “dark” about the reality of what is going on. They are in a panic mode now and they are using their employees to try to keep the status quo.
Folks, open up that curtain of secrecy and deceit that the coal companies and our elected state officials have used on the people for so long. I believe that you will see that it is those people behind that curtain that has prevented this state from flowering into something wonderful.
I attended the EPA hearing on Tuesday, arriving right at 7 and waiting outside 2 hours before getting a seat inside. The scene made me overwhelmingly sad. Fear was the prevailing emotion-miners afraid of losing their jobs, environmentalists afraid of destruction of the mountains and streams and, alarmingly, afraid of the miners themselves. The MTR issue is pitting us against one another, with out of state interests the winner. Business as usual. Divide and conquer is working beautifully for King Coal.
Phil — Thank you for pointing that out. I agree that coal is a boom/bust industry and production numbers of W.Va. have bounced around in the last decade. My statement about “decline for years” was meant over the longer term of decades.
From http://www.wvablue.com/diary/5042/lifting-the-coal-resource-curse :
“Coke production peaked in 1910 at 4,217,381 tons. Production of all types of coal peaked in 1997 at 181,914,000 tons. In 2008, production has dropped 9% from the peak to 165,750,817. Back in 1940… West Virginia coal mining employment peaked at 130,457. By 2008, the number had dropped 84% to 20,927.”
As a % of national market share, Appalachian Basin coal is greatly in decline as well (dropping about in half in the last 50 years). For USGS collected figures see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wvablue/3938443316/
A major challenge for Appalachian coal production is we are rapidly running out of the most valuable low sulfur coal. For USGS projections see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wvablue/3938414136/
Phil and Clem,
A much more helpful table is this one:
http://www.wvminesafety.org/historicprod.htm
Coal production in West Virginia peaked in 1997, and has shown a general downward trend since then. Though go back to the 1940s and 1950s and look at some of those production figures …
And then, of course, take a look at employment. Does anyone really think we’re ever going to have 50,000 coal miners working in West Virginia ever again?
The reasons for the boom-bust of coal and for the long decline in employment are complex, and mechanization played a huge role. Phil will rightly point out that the north-central coalfields of our state took a major hit from the 1990 Clean Air Act. But scrubbers have done some to help with that, making CONSOL’s UMWA operations much more economically viable.
Economic transitions are not pretty things. But demanding that nothing ever change doesn’t help change that.
The UMWA has done West Virginia a service by trying to play a positive and reasonable role in writing climate change legislation — rather than walking away from the table.
I’m not sure that the union’s position against elimination of NWP 21 is a step in that same direction … I thought the union’s position on MTR was to advocate for very stringent regulation, but not abolition. The UMW statement at this week’s hearing did little to explain exactly how it is that mountaintop removal has minimal impacts cumulatively — the standard for qualifying for nationwide permit treatment.
It would be interesting to hear more of an explanation from the union’s experts on that particular issue.
Ken.
Phil and Clem,
One more thing … let me say that certainly the UMWA and its members don’t need me or anybody else lecturing them about the boom-bust nature of their industry.
Most union miners spent their careers periodically dealing with layoff and callbacks that these boom-bust cycles produce. Luckily, they haven’t since 1993 had to deal with a contract dispute related work stoppage, too.
At the same time, while miners are quick to blame “tree huggers” for layoffs, you seldom hear miners or their union raise a single question — publicly, at least — when mine operators and company executives bet wrong about which way the market is headed, adding more to the boom-bust cycle.
I guess “market conditions” isn’t as easy a thing to yell and scream at during public hearings.
And while I’m at it … it would have been nice if UMWA general counsel Grant Crandall had encourage the coal miners at the Charleston meeting I attended to be a little more polite and listen to what the other side has to say. Through its history, the UMWA developed a strong reputation for tolerance on issues like race … and the union has always strived to be an agent for general social change in coalfield communities. Let’s hope CER urges his members to be more polite and respectful than the miners at this week’s hearing were of those who disagree with them.
Ken.
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