The message was twofold Monday at the first day of the 30th annual Eastern Coal Council conference: coal is a path to American energy security, but the industry that fuels half the nation's electricity could have a short future in the current political climate.
"We're in the end game here," said Kenneth Nameth, executive director of the Southern States Energy Board, as members of Congress debate legislation that would cap emissions of carbon dioxide. "Now the time has hit."
Nameth recalled the early 1970s, when there was fear of global cooling caused by the burning of fossil fuel -- and then the late 1970s, when it was global warming, not cooling, that was the concern.
He said the market and the need for energy -- not the latest political bandwagon on climate trends -- should determine the nation's energy future.
"Are we tearing down our energy infrastructure today, or are we building it up? This week in Congress will determine that," Nameth said.
"[According to some members of Congress,] we want to reduce our carbon dioxide by 80 percent by 2050. So, OK, that means Americans by then instead of 20 tons would be putting out about 4 tons a year, and so you ask yourself the question: When did we last emit about 4 tons of carbon dioxide a year? And the answer is when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock."
U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, of Tennessee, told those attending the event at MeadowView Conference Center that the cost of a carbon cap-and-trade system would mean an estimated $3,000 per family in added cost of living and the loss of three million American manufacturing jobs.
"The absolute worst time in the world you can increase taxes or prices is during the middle of a recession," he said.
He pointed to efforts made while he was mayor in Johnson City, Tenn., heating with landfill gas, using more fuel-efficient cars and improving the energy efficiency of buildings and traffic lights, as a better model than heavy-handed taxes.
U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-2nd, of West Virginia, said the uncertainty of the coal industry's future stalls funding and investment in coal-related businesses.
"This is an issue that is extremely important to the productivity of our communities to the individuals to the job base to the manufacturers and really to the lifeblood of our singular state but also to the region," Capito said. "We have been supplying the energy and the resources for this country to be powered that we're now going to be penalized because that's where we happen to live and have developed or have used our resources to power this country and move it to the economic prosperity we have."
Daniel Roling, president of National Coal Corp., called on those in the industry to start telling their side of the story because the political pressure is not going away.
He said taxes that drive up the price of energy in the U.S. would mean jobs shipped overseas to countries willing to provide cheap power -- meaning a weaker nation, as well as a worse global environment because such nations have few environmental controls.
"The mining industry needs to quit hiding under a bushel basket and start telling its story," Roling said. "The vocal minority in this country has perfected the art of getting attention. ... I believe there's a very large silent majority in the United States that needs to be heard; they need to speak up before it's too late."
The conference concludes today, followed by a meeting of the Southern States Energy Board Committee On Clean Coal.
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