Dec 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ry Rivard Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va.


Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said the coal industry needs to stop using "fear mongering, grandstanding and outrage as a strategy" and instead get ready to help stave off global climate change and curb mountaintop removal mining.

In a major op-ed released Thursday, Byrd laid into the coal industry's recent political tactics. He said in an audio recording that power plants and coal companies both need to prepare to create a "healthier environment."

Byrd said coal operators and others in the state risked "shouting ourselves out of any productive dialogue" with environmental regulators over mountaintop mining.

"As your United States Senator, I must represent the opinions and the best interests of the entire Mountain State, not just those interests of coal operators and southern coalfield residents who may be strident supporters of mountaintop removal mining," Byrd said.

He added, "Change has been a constant throughout the history of our country and our coal industry. West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or they can choose to resist -- resist, I say -- and be overrun by it. One thing is clear. The time is now. The time has arrived for the people of West Virginia to think long and to think hard about which course they want to choose."

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