Jim

 

Good summary of the shortcomings of the political leaders, but I would add or emphasize two things. 

 

First I would really stress that the price of coal is so artificial because the external costs of environmental damage, health cost impact and the rapidly increasing cost of climate change should be attributed to cost of coal. Superstorm Sandy” is just the tip of the iceberg...that is melting.  And the truth be known, we are paying more for the “cheap electricity” when you add all the legacy costs of health care, environmental damage and now the horrific and mounting costs to all taxpayers for the damage due to climate change.

 

Let me recall for you the case history that proves this quite emphatically, and is near by and recent. 

 

In 2005, in my native home, the Province of Ontario’s then Premier, (equal to our Governor), asked “why are the health care costs so much higher in the downwind air shed areas of all our coal fired power plants?”  He asked the question because BOTH the cost of health care AND the cost of power generation and distribution are in the Provincial budget. 

 

They do not have any “private” publicly traded power companies...they are “Crown Corporations” owned by the taxpayers.  In addition, they have this “horrible” and  “socialistic” concept in place call single payer universal health care...everybody is covered, and it is paid from income taxes. 

 

The premier asked them to study the facts he was seeing, and after two years of an independent analysis, concluded that when the cost of health care directly attributable to emissions from coal fired power plants were added to the cost of coal, the real cost was higher than available renewable energy.  So the Province announced a plan to shut down all coal fired power plants, and that was intended to be completed last fall...although I am told there are a couple of plants that will survive till 2014.

 

They have replaced those plants with added solar and wind generation.  They also have a F.I.T. program.  And they have been able to reduce by a small amount electric utility rates.

 

Now to be sure, there is controversy over it all, and debates still rage about the wisdom of the plan, but the point is, because the Province has BOTH health care and electric generation in the Provincial budget, they looked at the total, whole and real cost of coal, and decided they would be better off budget wise, let alone environmentally, by killing coal in Ontario.

 

And the impact on WV?  The “Crown Corporation” power companies of Ontario WERE one of Arch Coal’s biggest customers!

 

The politicians here are not taking anything close to that pragmatic and realistic an approach.  They are certainly ONLY protecting their source of election funding: the profits of the coal companies. And of course, there will be a loss of severance taxes from coal as it continues to decline.  But the effort Ted Boettner, Jeff Kessler and other Legislators are spelling out for finally getting a real rainy day fund going will help.

 

The argument that jobs are at stake is deceptive at best.  Yes, as mines close, those individuals need alternative sources of income.  But it is quite clear from the economies around the world, especially those that have a F.I.T. programs,  that renewable energy will create more jobs in those clean industries, than will be lost by closing mines.  Miners could be retrained into safe and healthy jobs instead of black lung jobs...(remembering that as a result of the autopsies,  we learned that 75% of the miners that died in the Upper Big Branch explosion had black lung disease)

 

Diversifying the State’s economy should be a top priority.   And getting wind, solar and other renewable energy products manufactured in West Virginia should be at the top of the list.

 

Did you know that there is a silicon refining facility just up river from Montgomery WV that ships huge cakes of silicon to solar cell manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies...out of State?  There is plenty of room on that property for a PV manufacturing operation, but try as I did, I could not get anyone in the Department of Commerce, starting with Jeff Heroldt and the PEA to pursue getting a manufacturing plant there.  I was told “off the record” that [promoting any such plant would be too “anti coal”!

 

Then of course, if and when the WV market is sufficiently incentivized with net metering and a F.I.T. program, to level the playing field, installation jobs would be created. What’s more, important...the profits of the coal companies or retraining miner for new clean jobs.

 

Secondly, there is ample precedent for EPA’s approach that sets rules that will spur innovation. I often use the example of the automobile.  In the mid 60’s, when cars like my fathers came with a 4000 mile warranty that was for only good for 90 days, and they got 12 mpg., and were emitting tons of pollutants, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), started the process of enacting technology driving rules to force the manufacturers to clean up the emissions, including fugitive crankcase and fueling.  They did so when the technology was unknown and so the industry screamed, it would destroy their business and no one could afford the cars with emission controls etc. etc.  None of that came true.

 

As CARB’s rules went into effect, they saw how they could be improved even more.  They realized that requiring emission controls on new cars was not good enough.  So they added the requirement that the car must be capable of maintaining that level of cleanliness to 100,000 miles!  

 

In California, cars are required to be smog checked EVERY YEAR to get a license renewed.  Because we are supposedly NOT a non attainment area, West Virginia NEVER smog checks cars or trucks, so many yahoos remove the certified exhaust systems and are non-compliant with the CARB and EPA requirements.

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