Miner speaks in favor of pollution controls
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After more than four decades as a coal miner, Stanley Sturgill ambled into an ornate room at West Virginia’s state capitol Tuesday to deliver a stark message to the Trump administration: Climate change is real and continuing to burn dirty fossil fuels hurts future generations.
He was among dozens who had their say at a public hearing over the intended repeal of an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency was holding the only scheduled hearing on the policy reversal in Charleston, capital of a state heavily dependent on coal mining. The hearing was expected to last two days.
There were warnings from the other side, too — that the regulations threaten to choke off livelihoods in coal country and drive up people’s energy costs. But despite the locale of the hearing, those concerned about climate change packed the hearing room.
Sturgill, who said he suffers with black lung disease, wanted the Clean Power Plan upheld for his three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He and his wife drove several hours from Lynch, Kentucky, to speak because “we may be old, but we still love living.”
“Now, to be realistic, do I really think that the administration cares what this old worn coal miner has to say?” asked Sturgill, 72, who conceded that his proenvironment views were not popular in his hometown. “I don’t know. I really doubt it. But I had to be here, and as long as I can draw a breath, I’m going to keep working to fight climate change and protect the land and country I love.”
The Clean Power Plan sought to reduce use of the dirtiest fossil fuel but never took effect because of lawsuits filed by coal companies and conservative-leaning states. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of the carbon emissions driving climate change.
Among those testifying Tuesday was Bob Murray, chief executive Murray Energy Corp. He derided the Obama plan as an illegal power grab that has cost coal miners their jobs. About two dozen of Murray’s employees sat in the audience.
“The Clean Power Plan would devastate coal-fired electricity generation in America,” said Murray, whose company employs 5,200 miners and has 14 active coal mines. “This would impose massive costs on the power sector and on American consumers.”
West Virginia has been especially hit hard by the decades of decline in the coal industry, losing thousands of jobs. However, energy market analysts say the downturn in coal prices has been largely driven by competition from cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, not government regulations.
American Petroleum Institute consultant Jack Harrison testified that any
replacement of the Clean Power Plan “should contemplate states relying on natural gas” and new technologies that reduce emissions.
EPA Director Scott Pruitt has sought to cast doubt on the consensus of climate scientists that the continued burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming. Scientists say climate change has already triggered rising seas and more extreme weather, including killer heat waves, worsened droughts and torrential rains.
Pruitt did not attend Tuesday’s public hearing, which was presided over by EPA employees. But even with the hearing being held in the heart of coal country, most speakers said they supported limits on carbon emissions.
The Sierra Club’s climatepolicy director, Liz Perera, said the proposed repeal ignores scientific reality.
“This is about the kind of world that we want to leave for our children,” she said.
Sturgill, the retired miner, said the EPA under the Trump administration was protecting fossil-fuel industry profits at the expense of the environment and the health of Americans who have to breathe polluted air.
He recounted a Native American proverb, and urged the policy makers at EPA to take it to heart: “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, only then will you realize you cannot eat money.”