This Saturday—if all
goes according to plan, and so far it looks like things will go according to
plan—residents of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio will gather along
highways in a “United for Coal” demonstration. Sometimes called a “prayer line”
and obliquely compared to the “Hands Across America” of 25 years ago, the
demonstration is intended to call attention to the plight of miners, their
families, and their communities, as more miners are laid off with little hope
of ever getting their jobs back.
The
plight of these folks is real. Mines have been shuttered throughout the region.
Just last month Alpha Natural Resources shut down eight mines in Appalachia, laying off 800 workers.
The
organizers of this event say that the blame for their situation sits squarely
with the Federal government and its environmental regulations. The United for
Coal website says:
Our government has decided to
commit "Regional Genocide" against our people. They have summarily
executed the entire coal industry thru overreaching environmental regulation.
This was done with no consideration of the human cost whatsoever. No
replacement industry was offered, no migration path was planned. An entire
society stamped out by rule of law with nary a thought about its citizens. Our
"American Dream" has become a nightmare, and we are but the first
domino to fall in an economic chain of events that will end the dreams of us
all. Who can we turn to? Who will save us??
Now, inflammatory
rhetoric aside, this narrative, that environmental rules are forcing the
closure of power plants, which thus reduces the demand for the coal that is
mined in the hills of Appalachia, is being reinforced by the press. That line
of thought is conveyed in the headline of this Chicago Tribune story, published
yesterday, “More US coal plants to retire due to green rules: study.”
The
newspaper story is based on a study by the international economic consulting
firm The Brattle Group. But if you take a look at the study itself, the authors
say that the retirement of the coal-fired power plants is due to lower prices
for natural gas. The reduction of capacity is foreseen as being about 59,000
megawatts, going as high as 77,000 megawatts of capacity if strict
environmental regulation is implemented. As The Brattle Group points out,
however, the environmental regulations and deadlines for the coal plants are less
restrictive than they had
previously estimated. In the body of the Tribune story other factors affecting
the closure of the power plants are mentionerd, including warmer than average
weather. The headline is nonetheless misleading.
Historically,
the regulation for mining itself has been lax to nonexistent. In her
groundbreaking expose of mountaintop removal mining for US New and World Report
Penny Loeb said that the regulations of the West Virginia Department of
Environmental Protection, the department in charge of permitting mountaintop
mining, “are outdated, its enforcement muscle is
puny, and it is constantly reacting to problems rather than heading them off.”[i]
Most fines are low, even for serious violations. The average fine is about $800
per incident. The maximum fine can be $5,000, but after protests by mine owners
DEP assessment officers reduced nearly 80 percent of fines recommended by
inspectors.[ii]
And as illustrated by the disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine in 2010, mine
owners continue to disregard regulations, with little action by Washington even
in the wake of a large and headline grabbing disaster such as Upper Big Branch.
Now,
things are bad for the folks of Appalachia. You can read books about the Battle
of Blair Mountain or watch the movie Matewan and get a glimpse of the
hardscrabble life of the Appalachian miners and others as they fought for
unionization in the early twentieth century. Fifty years ago, as he campaigned
through Appalachia, John Kennedy was moved as he witnessed the poverty of the
region, leading him to form the Appalachian Regional Commission, intended to
raise the living standards of Appalachians. Lyndon Johnson followed through
with this effort by signing the bipartisan Appalachian Regional Development Act.
But
any ameliorative efforts by the Johnson and Kennedy administrations have been
erased by 30 years of mountaintop removal, which requires only a fraction of
the miners employed by more traditional mining techniques, and the union
busting by the coal companies, particularly Massey Energy. The folks at United
For Coal are correct. They need help. That help will not come from the coal
companies. They are showing no solidarity with the miners and their families
with United for Coal. Washington needs to do something. Just as the auto
industry bailouts kept people working in Ohio and Michigan, investments in
infrastructure or green projects could keep paychecks coming into Appalachian’s
wallets.
I
support the people who will stand along the highways of Ohio, Kentucky,
Virginia, and West Virginia. In spirit I am United for Coal. I believe,
however, that the dire condition of the miners and their communities lies with
forces beyond their control: a warm winter that drove down the demand for all
fuel, as well as natural gas whose price has plummeted. They are also at the
mercy of an industry that has been indifferent if not hostile to their needs,
mountaintop removal that destroys the land and ruins communities, and state
governments that are often more beholden to the coal companies than their own
citizens.
United
for Coal is correct that the Federal Government is to blame for their plight as
well. But it is more the fault of a short sighted and gridlocked political
system than are the environmental requirements for cleaner air and water.
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