Massey Energy President Don Blankenship was on statewide radio here in West Virginia today, this time blasting the Obama administration for a wide-ranging list of efforts to toughen environmental regulations.
Among the things that made the list: Reviews of proposed uranium mining, efforts to more strictly police factory farms, efforts to resume taxing chemical companies to pay for Superfund toxic cleanups, and consideration of taking steps to deal with water pollution from drilling in the Marcellus shale. Speaking on the MetroNews show Talkline, Blankenship even hauled out the old, out-of-context attack on then-candidate Obama’s comments that his proposals for addressing global warming would keep utilities and the coal industry from building new power plants that don’t capture their greenhouse emissions.
According to Blankenship:
It’s a widespread environmental movement acceleration that is causing, what I refer to as, a regulation-cession. We’re not in a recession, a typical, cyclical recession. We’re losing our jobs to other countries because you can’t comply with the regulations that change constantly, are very expensive to comply with or that you can’t even get a permit.
Blankenship didn’t sound to impressed with the pledge by West Virginia’s political leaders to unite in seeking “clarity” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about what new standards EPA expects Clean Water Act permits for surface mines to meet:
The problem with asking for clarity from EPA is that you’ll get it,but it will be clarity you can’t live with.
It’s easy for them to set standards and regulations that are cost-prohibitive and that you can’t achieve. You can get a permit, but you can’t make any money with it. You’re not going to be able to move the coal out of the ground in a cost-effective way.
Blankenship did provide a concise explanation of the kinds of problems that permit delays can cause, both for overall company financing:
The banks don’t want to loan you money if you are dependent on being able to pay the loan back on getting a permit and then there is so much uncertainty in terms of whether you will get that permit.
… and on how large-scale mining actually operates:
The complication is that it takes some time to prepare for the large equipment to work. The small equipment has to get trees cut and build ponds and do other things to get ready for the big equipment, and if you don’t have the permit in time to get that work done, then a lot of the big equipment in a lot of the jobs goes down.
Then again, Blankenship also told host Hoppy Kercheval that large equipment is going to be idled and layoffs occur “ in several months if the permits don’t come through” — this despite his comments to industry analysts that Massey is in good shape for Clean Water Act permits through at least 2010 and maybe on into 2011.
My buddy Hoppy didn’t challenge Blankenship on that statement, or on much of anything else. It’s worth noting that Blankenship didn’t show up for the “media availability” organized by Gov. Joe Manchin’s staff for political leaders and the industry after this week’s big closed-door coal summit. Instead, he goes on Hoppy’s show a day later to get his message out.
Hoppy, by the way, didn’t exactly lessen the confusion out there about what the Obama EPA is up to on strip-mining permits. In introducing the segment with Blankenship, Hoppy said:
The EPA stepped in and put a halt to 79, I think it was, surface mine permits in Appalachian that had already been approved, had already gone through the approval process. And EPA stepped in an said, we’re going to hold them up and take a closer look.
No, Hoppy … these 79 permits had not been approved yet by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And even if they had, Section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act gives the EPA broad authority to revoke those permits.
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Yes, how dare President Obama try to protect the health of American citizens and the future of our environment. If only we were more like China, where corporations are free to pollute as they please, and over 400,000 people die every year from pollution-related diseases.
Coal’s contribution to West Virginia GDP peaked in 2001 as a percentage of GDP, as well as in real dollars. It is hard to see how uncertainty caused by the new administration’s reviews of permits could be blamed for the steady decline of coal in West Virginia during the previous administration (even if we didn’t know that the current layoffs are being caused by the decline in demand for electricity).
In 2007, the last year for which the Bureau of Economic Analysis has figures available, coal contributed only 4.33% to West Virginia GDP. Coal’s contribution is down more than half a billion from 2001, while the total GDP went up over 3 billion (in constant 2000 dollars). See http://www.bea.gov/regional/gsp/
There have been many studies over the last few years of possibilities for revamping West Virginia’s economy, most of which acknowledge coal will be around for a while, but focus on energy conservation, sustainability, and diversification. Some coal and power companies have acknowledged the reality and are moving on. It is time for the Governor and Mr. Blankenship to do the same.
Makes me feel much better about Obama’s environmental agenda. Truly. Blankenship rattled off a list of some of our most pressing environmental issues much better than I ever could.
Obama could use more help like this getting the positive message out.
“The problem with asking for clarity from EPA is that you’ll get it,but it will be clarity you can’t live with”.
Now this is a hoot! How about clarity on Approximate Original Contour or Post Mining Development Plans. Certainly that would be clarity Don would have trouble living with. The real question is why has this taken so long?