Published: October 09, 2009 11:29 am      

We better be scared; Coal is under siege

If you care about southernmost West Virginia, if you care about your job, if you care about your future, it is time for you to stand up and be counted. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an unelected, bureaucratic agency and it has decided to hold up 79 surface mining permits in Appalachia, which includes 23 in West Virginia.

The EPA claims that the coal mining permits, as now proposed, would damage water supplies. The Obama administration is cheering this action, and it is moving to push our nation away from its dependency on coal. We shouldn’t be surprised as these same individuals told us, before they were appointed , that coal, in their opinion, is destructive; the action of removing mountain tops and seams of coal is damaging the environment, and they want to pursue an alternate route for energy. Thus, without the passage of any law, without any input from southern West Virginia or other coal producing states, an appointed bureaucratic agency has decided to halt the mining process, which in effect will eventually shut down our coal industry destroying jobs and our way of life.

The Magna Carta , written in 1215 says that.... “Justice delayed is Justice denied.” You guessed it, delay, delay, and more delay is what the EPA is doing to close our coal industry in Mingo County and southernmost West Virginia.

This is indeed a critical moment for all of us. Sen. Rockefeller, Sen. Byrd, Congressman Rahall, Gov. Manchin and the rest of West Virginia’s Democratic representatives in Washington and in Charleston, including myself, as well as UMWA President Cecil Roberts, must march to the EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson and then to President Obama himself, and demand that this bureaucratic obstruction by the EPA end and end NOW.

Oh yea, please remember, that it was my honor to campaign for, introduce and travel throughout southern West Virginia with Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton. Mingo County and southern West Virginia overwhelmingly voted for Clinton because we knew who Obama would appoint to these powerful regulatory positions.

I suppose that we should not be surprised, because President Obama made public his positions on coal well before the election. He and the liberal establishment simply don’t like coal and think that it is dirty, dangerous and that it pollutes the water and air. Do they really want to put all of us out of a job whereby our children and families will suffer? Well, it will have that effect if they keep reviewing and withholding our mining permits.

I am and have always been a strong supporter of our U.S. senators and congressmen, but I also strongly disagreed with them when they chose to endorse President Obama early, and at a critical time in the Democratic nomination process. Along with Governor Manchin they could have helped Hillary Clinton gain the Democratic nomination for President. Any Democrat nominated was almost guaranteed to win due to the mess that was left from the Bush administration on almost every front.

The question now becomes, “How will we and our representatives respond?” We have to stand up, unite, write letters, send e-mails, and stand together as never before as we fight for our jobs, our future, and for the coal industry. We are an energy state. Our wagon is hitched to coal and coal keeps the lights on, provides electricity and warmth for our nation, and it is unfairly under siege.

On the local level, now is not the time for political bickering, grand-standing, or rock-throwing. All officials, U.S., state and local must join hands and march to Washington and demand corrective action from the Obama administration.

And to our Congressional delegation and Governor, who supported and endorsed President Obama, well, this chicken has now come home to roost. It is now time that they call ‘in’ their political note for their support of him. As the old saying goes, “It’s time for President Obama to dance with the ones that brung him.”

Contact me at any time at truman.chafin@wvsenate.gov or call (304)357-7808.