Congressional Outlook

By Congressman Ed Whitfield, 1st District of Kentucky

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama called for an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy while also calling for the government to make new investments in clean energy technology. The President claims that such investments will strengthen national security, protect the environment and create jobs.

However, in the same breath, the President made only a passing mention of coal, and that of “clean coal.” In doing so, I am concerned that in calling for new investments and subsidies into new energy technologies, the President missed a vital opportunity to discuss coal and its essential role in meeting America’s growing energy needs. This is an issue that will be taken up and addressed in this session of Congress due to the fact that regulations proposed by President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will have far reaching consequences for coal.

From my own perspective, in Kentucky, coal plays a vital role in our state’s economy. The industry has an economic impact of $3.25 billion and employs approximately 17,000 people, along with tens of thousands of additional workers in related fields. Some estimates suggest that the United States possesses enough coal reserves for the next 250 years.

Nationally, coal mining contributes more than 550,000 jobs to the economy. Of these, more than 154,000 are directly related to coal and more than 400,000 are indirect. This means that for every one coal mining job created, three other jobs are created elsewhere.

Coal powers our economy, literally. In Kentucky, 92 percent of our electricity comes from coal, and nationally the figure is almost 50 pecent. Let’s be realistic: that baseload power generation is not going to be replaced by “green” energy in the foreseeable future, if ever.

Coal clearly offers a number of benefits and further investments in the industry will only yield greater benefits for our energy needs, job creation and growth in our economy. By solely focusing our investments and subsidies in new energy technologies, such as wind or solar, we will be neglecting opportunities to fully utilize the very resources that are basic components of the President’s “all of the above” strategy.

In the coming Congress, as Chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, I intend to take a hard look at what appears to be an attack on coal by some in Washington. Actions taken by federal agencies have demonstrated that this is an Administration that is not interested in fully harnessing the potential of coal to answer America’s energy needs. Instead, the Administration has demonstrated it prefers to regulate the industry and make it harder for coal to thrive while simultaneously advancing a green energy agenda.

Perhaps the most glaring demonstration of this Administration’s eagerness to limit the use of coal through burdensome red tape comes from the long list of heavy handed regulations being proposed by the EPA that would restrict the use of coal as a fuel for generating electricity.

First, there are Greenhouse Gas regulations, which would require new controls for carbon emissions at power plants. This clearly appears to be an attempt by the EPA to accomplish through regulation a similar cap and tax proposal that has been rejected by a bipartisan majority in Congress.