January 15, 2021 - “Thank you for the introduction and it is an honor and pleasure to be here today,” said Heath Lovell, Alliance Resource Partners and Chairman of WVCA in addressing the WV Symposium virtually. “I just want to start off by saying two things that are very evident in West Virginia. One, nowhere is it more apparent of how coal fits into the circle of life, from the standpoint of not just jobs, manufacturers and suppliers, and low-cost energy, but also to property taxes and all the other things that coal provides and so, it's an honor to be part of that industry in West Virginia. Two, I agree with what Chris Hamilton said in that West Virginia Coal Association is going to do everything possible to make sure that we protect the coal industry, especially in West Virginia.”

Lovell paid tribute to Chris Hamilton, President, and Jason Bostic, Vice President, WVCA, who are doing a great job, and recognized recently retired Bill Raney for his long tenure. The Association would not be where it is today without his leadership, he said. There are no two better leaders than Chris and Jason and it is appreciated what they bring to the table to be able to do the right thing for coal and West Virginia. Lovell introduced Senator Shelley Moore Capito.

Shelley Moore Capito

“Thank you for having me and thank you for everybody's attendance. I would like to say I always look forward to the West Virginia Coal Symposium, getting to see old friends, meet new friends and talk about coal and the energy industries in our State and the great people that work in those industries,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito. “I would like to start with thanking my good friend Bill Raney hoping that Bill gets everything that he would want because he sure deserves it. So, hat tip to Bill!” Capito described the events of Wednesday January 6 on Capitol Hill and then went on to matters of coal.

“A lot of what we are going to see from the Biden Administration that concerns me greatly, particularly in terms of coal and our coal jobs, is the Green New Deal,” said Capito. “They now have a platform to move the Green New Deal, not just in the House, but also move it over to the Senate. Now they've got to get ten more Republican Senators to agree and that's probably impossible. But it does mean that a lot of these issues will be front and center and there will be all kinds of EPA regulations with phasing out even more dramatically and drastically fossil fuels. There will be really difficult headwinds for financial institutions and others to finance coal projects. I'm worried about that.”

America’s energy independence, is now being seen as a negative and there are major red flags. The Congressional Review Act will allow Democrats to come in and undo any regulations that were passed over the last 60 days. Republicans did that when President Trump came in on a lot of Obama's regulations, successfully. Capito said she was still going to be there fighting like she always has for the men and women in the coal industry and other industries.

The advancements in technology are going to become much, much, more important. “The country must make sure that it is moving forward with alternative uses for coal, other than power. There's a lot of innovation and a lot of people that are working hard to see that we can use coal in other different manufacturing ways,” said Capito. “So, we're going to really be encouraging that because it's really important. Certainly, the minerals that exist in and around our coal plants are very valuable; I think we are going to be moving forward to make sure that those become a part of our own homegrown strength. I think that we will be moving forward on questioning and trying to do as much oversight, which is really where we're going to miss the boat not having that Chairmanship as to what the regulations, what kind of impacts they have, and how they're going to impact us in our coal industry.”

The good news is Capito has worked with Sheldon Whitehouse quite a bit on the 45Q tax, which helps provide incentives for businesses if they capture the carbon and reuse it. There's a very good tax credit there that got extended this year until the end of the year. There is another bill in there that works with the infrastructure on how to move carbon, and Sheldon Whitehouse is known as one of the biggest environmentalist Senators there is, and he spent a year in West Virginia clerking for Richard Nelley. Capito is working all the West Virginia connections that she can find.

Another red flag is that a lot of President Biden's nominees are being brought back from the Obama Administration. Eight years of that devastated the coal economy. It devastated certain areas of the State to the point where recovery still hasn't occurred, although it's coming back. This has led in part to the drug epidemic that we see in the State with the joblessness and hopelessness. Capito will do everything she can in Washington to make sure that there is not a repeat of that war on coal but it's going to be tough. She is very concerned about what this is going to mean, not just to the State, but to certainly all the great men and women who work in and around the coal industry in the State. Capito emphasized that there are headwinds ahead!

The President signed into law at year-end a bill that tries to help with carbon capture in the production of steel to get some advantages to do the technology piece to make sure that can happen. Obviously, everyone wants and needs a domestic steel industry and they've been way down. It's very important to coal that there is a domestic steel industry, and anything that can be  done to work hand-in-hand with the environmental and economic aspects of anything are going to be the way to go. That's called the Clean Industrial Technology Act, and the President signed it into law at the end of the year.

“I just want everybody to take a pause, and realize that what we saw on Wednesday was an earth-shattering display of a mob out of control,” said Capito. “To think, that anybody would think it was ok to go into your own Capitol, which is really the largest symbol of the preservation of our freedom, and destroy and harm people, in the name of what was a false narrative of overturning an election, is really, really disappointing. We're going to have all kinds of conversations about social media and what role social media has played and has not played, and that's the world that we live in.”

Sen. Capito and Sen. Manchin, good friends and good colleagues, are going to be showing the first signs of the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. There is a lot of good press for West Virginia and it's going to be a real invitation to the State to see some really spectacular vistas, to climb some great overhangs and to look at the New River Gorge Bridge. Also, it's a part of the coal heritage. There's a lot of coal heritage and coal history there which will be shared with the nation. So that's a great source of pride for Capito as she worked hard on that one and can't wait to see those blossoms in Fayette and Raleigh Counties.

“There are a lot of unknowns, but the one un-unknown is that we're going to have to work hard, be forceful, and have loud voices, and I certainly want to be that for you. So, thank you,” Capito concluded.