Published: October 16, 2009 11:26 pm      

‘Devastating to our way of life’

Puckett: Eliminating NP21 will negatively impact Appalachian coal

BLUEFIELD, Va. — In one of the most forceful statements of his term in the General Assembly, Virginia State Senator Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell, fired a salvo aimed at environmental community, the federal bureaucracy and the present initiative to eliminate Nationwide Permit 21 that regulates surface mining in the U.S.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal to eliminate the use of the (NP 21) would have a significant negative impact on the Appalachian region and the coal industry — the economic engine of our area,” Puckett was quoted in a press release as stating.

Puckett spoke Thursday night at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ regional hearing at Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Va. “What I said at the meeting last night was that you can’t eliminate the NP 21 permits without devastating our way of life,” Puckett said during a telephone interview from his office in Lebanon, Va. “I said that the environmentalists and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency are trying to shut down our coal industry and in the process, destroy jobs and dismantle the economy of Southwest Virginia.”

Puckett said he supported President Barack Obama, “but I don’t think he knows what the unelected bureaucrats are doing here,” he said. “No disrespect to the environmentalists, but they’re not thinking. When I ask them what they’re going to do to replace 51 percent of the energy in this country, they don’t have an answer,” Puckett said.

“I didn’t speak from prepared remarks. I was speaking from my heart,” Puckett said. “I’ve tried to work with environmental people. When coal operators complete the proper post-mining reclamation project and do the right thing, they leave the land in better shape. I know there are issues we still need to address, but we’re trying to do the right thing.

“The hardest thing to get past is history,” Puckett said. “Back in the 1970s, we didn’t have the kinds of laws to protect the environment like we do now and a lot of people remember those times,” he said. “I believe that companies like Alpha Natural Resources and Mike Quillen are doing a better job of protecting the environment and even going back to fix some of the problems of the past. They’re doing a lot better job at mine reclamation.”

Puckett said that he only had three minutes to make his point, but he said that based on the response from the people attending, he was voicing an opinion shared by the people he serves in the Virginia’s 38th Senatorial District.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com