Senator John D. Rockefeller IV

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

February 4, 2011

Thank you Bill for your introduction, your friendship and your leadership.  

You and Chris Hamilton and the entire West Virginia Coal Association give so much of yourselves personally and professionally for our state – and this yearly symposium is a always an important forum.  I’m glad to be here again.

To say these are challenging times is an understatement, isn’t it?

Intense competition with natural gas, a declining reserve of easily recoverable coal, lukewarm investors on Wall Street, and the over-reach of the EPA on greenhouse gas emissions and permits are upon us all at once – distinct but inter-connected challenges.  Taken together, they sometimes feel like an assault on coal from all directions.

I feel it; I know you feel it; and always most troubling to me – our coal miners and coal communities feel it.

We know that this nation cannot and will not prosper without coal, either today or any time in the future.  We know that with the help of technology – and the time to fully deploy that technology – we can make coal cleaner than ever before and as clean, or cleaner, than most other sources of abundant, domestic energy. 

And we know that Appalachian coal miners are up to any challenge, will face down any danger, and do whatever it takes to provide for their families and contribute as miners to the country they love.

Those three factors – the necessity of energy from coal, the triumph of technology, and the character of our coal miners – make me fundamentally very optimistic about the future of this industry. 

Yet that core optimism does not cloud my judgment about the challenges we face.  The forces arrayed against us are significant and varied.  The coal industry is at a crossroads like never before – change is already upon us.  And we have to find a way – urgently -- to grab hold of our own future. 

My frank, honest message to you today is that I don’t see us doing enough to gear up for the energy economy of tomorrow and I want very much to work with you to accept the reality we face and do more, better, faster to turn it in West Virginia’s favor.

The battles of the moment are important.  We need to delay the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations, we need to stop EPA from retroactively vetoing permits, and we need to get the permit process as a whole moving again.  I’m fully committed to that.

But my greater fear is that we will win some of these battles and yet still lose the war.  We must up our game.  We have to increase the intensity of our effort to find solutions to coal’s challenges – not just fight the issue of the day, and certainly not get bogged down in rhetorical games or bickering over side issues.  If we spend even half of our time fighting for the status quo, we will be left behind.

Cap and trade was defeated last year – I know as you do that every single vote in the Senate was critical to that and I made clear I could not support the bills put forth because there was no serious effort in them to advance clean coal or to give the industry the time needed to gain a meaningful foothold for new technology. 

It might be tempting just to count the defeat of cap and trade as a win and forget about it, or to keep up the fight on the political front without delving deeper in to the issues.  But for West Virginia that would be a grave mistake. 

The defeat of cap and trade was a short-term political win but it didn’t do anything to address the underlying issues.  It bought us time, not certainty, and my view is that we better use it wisely. 

Major changes to our energy and climate policies are by no means off the table and broader economic forces in energy industry are starting to eclipse the policy. 

The utility industry, the chemical industry, and many other major players in the U.S. business community are still pressing for a price to carbon in some form, or for a new clean energy standard, or both.  They insist that unless and until we settle that issue, they cannot move forward with the clean coal investments West Virginia needs. 

I worry that if all this drags out too long, those major U.S. industries will turn to another energy source.

Is that a harsh description of reality?  Yes.  You know I always call it like I see it, even if the news makes us all a little uncomfortable. 

But it is also a call to action.  The decline of coal is not inevitable – there are just as many factors working for us as against (remember my core optimism). 

We can make coal as indispensable tomorrow as it is today – as long as we don’t stand still; as long as we get moving on every front – business, financing, job creation, regulation, legislation -- to build a consensus around better, cleaner and safer coal.

I’m fighting hard to suspend EPA regulations on greenhouse gas emissions for two years not for the sake of EPA-bashing -- but specifically because we need time to move forward with a major new program on CCS and we need a serious seat at the table for any other proposals on climate change. 

Eliminating the EPA or stopping the agency from ever addressing carbon emissions simply won’t work.  And I promise you that most of the people in Washington who are pressing those ideas want a fight more than they want a solution. 

Here in West Virginia, we need solutions.  Suspending EPA regulations for two years can pass – it can work – but only with your help, only if we all get behind it in a united push.

I also need your help to push forward the CCS bill – which dedicates $20 billion (from a wires charge on all fossil energy across the country so everyone in America participates)  – to bringing CCS to full-scale, commercial deployment. 

CCS may not be the only answer – we’re looking at every good idea out there – but its supported by every major stakeholder, its proven, and its being rolled out here in West Virginia. 

If we can drive CCS forward over the next few years and take it global, then we will have, in fact, secured coal’s future.

Finally, I can’t leave here today without raising with you again the imperative of improving mine safety.

Last week I reintroduced my mine safety legislation and I need to ask you as an association to re-engage with me and with Senator Manchin – who also cares deeply about the safety of our miners -- to get it done.

Mining will always be a dangerous occupation.  We accept that.  But you as an industry and we as Senators share an obligation to do as much as we can to prevent needless accidents and fatalities. 

The Upper Big Branch tragedy and the deaths of other miners since then – including a 19-year-old miner who lost his life just last month -- are constant reminders that we must do more. 

We worked together after the disasters at Sago and Aracoma to pass very substantial mine safety reforms, but UBB made clear we have more work to do and that remains a top priority for me.

Let me close by saying that I know I am asking all of you to make hard decisions and to find time in your already very busy work days to do even more to help move us toward a better, more secure and much safer future for our state and our miners. 

You care as much as I do about the hopes and prosperity of our West Virginia children, and I thank you for that.

You know I always call it like I see it with you, and I thank you for doing the same with me.  We don’t sugarcoat with each other. 

And this is a moment for that honest and constructive dialogue, for working together and for taking a new course.  If we do that, I am certain that we can win.