Mr. Quinn's war: coal industry faces multiple battles

Jul 07 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)

Hal Quinn's prepared remarks to a ballroom full of mining professionals in Pittsburgh last month were marked by brutal honesty and laced with metaphoric muster.

The opening line: "Since the last time we gathered for this event, a lot has happened -- and frankly most of what has happened has not been so good."

It was not surprising, however, considering Mr. Quinn is the public advocate for an industry that, in his own words, is in the middle of a war. As the president of the National Mining Association , it's his job to persuade politicians to end the bloodshed.

In a speech that invoked Roman emperors, David Letterman , Archimedes and Voltaire, Mr. Quinn vilified the Obama administration's policies, carried out mostly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , regulations on everything from power plant emissions and water contamination. He compared the government's recent pledge of federal assistance for unemployment-stricken Appalachian coal communities to war reparations.

There's been some good news for the industry. Last week's Supreme Court ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to go back and properly consider the costs of regulating power plants, was a rare moment of victory.

Though analysts have opined that it's unlikely that the rule in question would go away -- and most coal-fired plants have already closed -- it could very well have implications on how the EPA crafts rules in the future.

"The decision effectively puts EPA on notice: Reckless rule-making that ignores the cost to consumers is unreasonable and won't be tolerated," Mr. Quinn said in a statement last week. "It recognizes what the administration has ignored: that every regulatory benefit comes with a cost, and the value of that benefit cannot be known unless its costs are considered."

By Mr. Quinn's assessment, the midterm Congressional elections that brought in a wave of Republicans have helped slow the assault.

"Clearly Congress has been helpful to our cause," he said, praising that legislators have "held the administration's feet to the fire."

He also acknowledged that coal faces a tough market -- primarily because power plants are burning cheaper and cleaner natural gas for electric power. But if market forces are the "rock," the administration's policies represent the "hard place."

"If we have learned anything so far," Mr. Quinn ended his remarks by saying, "it is the lesson captured in the observation of the French philosopher Voltaire: 'It is dangerous to be right in matters about which one's government is wrong.'"

Daniel Moore : dmoore@post-gazette.com , 412-263-2743 and Twitter @PGdanielmoore.

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