Dec 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Mannix Porterfield The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.


Coal keeps the lights on and homes heated for 53 percent of the nation, but this was the year it became the Rodney Dangerfield of American industry.

Not only has its respect been diminished, but King Coal has been under siege from environmental forces and politicians alike. Late in the year, even Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who grew up in a coal camp, unleashed some severe criticism of the industry.

In West Virginia, the industry was taken to court time and again, but the hardest blow came shortly after Barack Obama moved into the White House and his Environmental Protection Agency director decided to apply the brakes to 79 pending mining permits in Appalachia -- 23 in this state.

Industry officials howled over the holdup to see if the proposed installations could past muster with the Clean Water Act, and before long, political leaders jumped into the fray.

Gov. Joe Manchin, an early supporter of Obama in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes, attempted a one-on-one meeting with the new president to see about speeding up the permitting process.

As of late December, however, no such sit-down with the chief executive had occurred, and Manchin's staff wasn't certain if one ever would.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., defended the EPA, saying the federal agency was merely doing its job in attempting to see if the proposed mine operations were in accord with federal law.

Bill Raney, head of the West Virginia Coal Association, in a response to Byrd's claim that the industry was engaged in "scapegoating" and "stoking fear" among its beleaguered work force, asserted the EPA was engaged in a "concerted effort" to erase coal mining across Appalachian through the regulatory process.

Manchin said as much before Byrd joined the controversy, saying the EPA wanted to eliminate mining and was accomplishing it by intense regulatory procedures.

Perhaps not, but Byrd maintained in his controversial remarks that support for the mountaintop removal practice was losing support on Capitol Hill.

Raney said the industry already had witnessed the "initial harbingers of a more wholesale crisis" among producers, emphasizing a mere two permits had been approved this year by the EPA.

Rahall went to bat for Consol Energy mines halted after a federal judge ruled in favor of environmentalists, calling on Army Engineers to move swiftly in Clay County, where some 500 jobs are being held in limbo. Layoffs are due to commence in early February.

"The economic reality is that a preparation plant that processes coal from both surface and deep mines cannot remain profitable and efficient when the majority of its feedstock supply is shut down," Raney said.

"These are real jobs lost, affecting real people now."

Raney said the EPA had launched "a full-scale attack" on permits for valley fills, which he said were "absolutely necessary" to run coal preparation plants and underground mines.

The coal leader acknowledged the economic downturn, considered the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but said he fully expected recovery and that coal must be a vital part of that.

"The coal industry needs to be positioned to react," Raney said.

"It cannot do so when the government refuses to act promptly or with meaningful guidance on issuing the authorizations necessary for mining."

-- E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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