National Press Club interview with questions & answers

From an Article by Matthew Daly, Huntington Herald Dispatch (AP), April 19, 2021

WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest coal miners union said Monday it would accept President Joe Biden’s plan to move away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition” that includes thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.

Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said ensuring jobs for displaced miners — including 7,000 coal workers who lost their jobs last year — is crucial to any infrastructure bill taken up by Congress.

“I think we need to provide a future for those people, a future for anybody that loses their job because of a transition in this country, regardless if it’s coal, oil, gas or any other industry for that matter,’’ Roberts said in an online speech to the National Press Club.

“We talk about a ‘just transition’ all the time,’’ Roberts added. “I wish people would quit using that. There’s never been a just transition in the history of the United States.’’

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., appearing with Roberts at the Press Club event, said measures to help coal miners in West Virginia and other rural states must be part of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure package taking shape in Congress.

“Basically what is needed … is the human infrastructure,’’ Manchin said. “You can’t leave anybody behind,’’ especially those in his hard-hit state, which has lost thousands of jobs in mining and other resource extraction industries jobs in recent years.

“I can tell you how West Virginia feels. We feel like returning Vietnam veterans,’’ Manchin said. “We’ve done every dirty job you’ve asked us to do. We never questioned it. We did it and performed well. And now all of a sudden we’re not good enough, we’re not clean enough, we’re not green enough and we’re not smart enough. You wonder why they quit voting for Democrats? That’s the reason.’’

A plan put forward by the UMWA calls for significant expansion of tax incentives for renewable energy and preference in hiring for dislocated miners; full funding for programs to plug old oil and gas wells and clean up abandoned mines; and continued incentives to develop so-called carbon capture and storage technology that traps carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels and stores it underground.

The union proposal, and Manchin’s endorsement, comes as Congress is considering Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges and power grid, promote electric cars and boost clean energy such as solar and wind power. A bipartisan group of lawmakers met with Biden Monday to discuss the plan.

Republicans have slammed the infrastructure package as a Democratic “wish list” with huge tax hikes, including a proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. Manchin, a centrist and key Democratic vote, has said he prefers a 25% corporate rate.

In his remarks Monday, Manchin made it clear he wants to preserve the coal industry, despite continued declines nationwide amid steep competition from cheaper natural gas and other energy sources.

“I’m for innovation, not elimination” of coal, Manchin said, adding that even if coal was reduced to zero in the United States, thousands of greenhouse gas-producing coal mines would continue to operate in China, India and other countries. “It’s not North America climate. It’s global climate,’’ he said.

As part of the mine workers’ proposal, Manchin endorsed a Democratic bill that would invigorate labor unions, following decades of court defeats and legislative setbacks. The House passed the so-called PRO Act in March, but the measure faces a near-certain Republican blockade in a narrowly divided Senate.

The bill would reverse “right to work” laws that have crimped unions’ ability to collect dues from workers who refuse to join yet benefit from deals negotiated on their behalf. It also would block tactics employers can use to drag out organizing drives, contract negotiations and ratification of labor agreements.

Manchin said the bill would “level the playing field” for union workers, adding that he wants to work with both parties to move it through Congress.

Biden’s infrastructure proposal includes $16 billion to plug hundreds of thousands of “orphaned” oil and gas wells and clean up abandoned coal and hardrock mines that pose serious safety and environmental hazards. The White House said the plan would create thousands of jobs and remediate pollution, including greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Biden’s plan also includes tax incentives for renewable energy and billions in spending to deploy carbon capture and storage, two other elements of the union proposal.

>>>>>>>>……………………>>>>>>>>……………………>>>>>>>>

See also: NATIONAL PRESS CLUB Virtual Newsmaker: Sen. Joe Manchin & UMWA President Cecil Roberts – YouTube, April 19, 2021

Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant in western Penna. was closed in November 2019

From an Article by Chrissy Suttles, Elwood City Ledger, July 21, 2020

Reimagine Appalachia on July 21st released a New Deal-style policy framework to expand economic opportunity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

A collective of environmental and economic policy groups in the region want federal lawmakers to include Appalachia in the national recovery conversation.

Large, absentee corporations have drained wealth from Appalachia for decades, the groups argue, leading to abandoned reclamation, pollution and poverty — especially in already marginalized communities. As Congress further addresses economic fallout linked to COVID-19, the partnership wants a seat at the table.

Reimagine Appalachia, a coalition of organizations from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, released the New Deal-style policy framework to expand economic opportunity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Ohio River Valley.

The strategy was drafted by Policy Matters Ohio, a research institute, and its sister organizations in neighboring states, including the Keystone Research Center in Pennsylvania.

Their solution involves reviving federal recovery programs launched during the Great Depression and expanding transportation, clean manufacturing and broadband in rural areas.

By reviving the Civilian Conservation Corps, Americans could rebuild wetlands and reforest their land, authors said. Appalachia is rich in carbon-absorbing natural resources, and investment in “carbon farming” would help mitigate the effects of climate change.

“It’s important to understand we don’t have to eliminate every single carbon emission to achieve net-zero carbon. Trees absorb carbon,” said Amanda Woodrum, a senior researcher at Policy Matters Ohio. She said it’s likely national climate change legislation will come in the form of an economic stimulus package if trends continue.

Shuttered coal plants can be converted into eco-industrial parks that use circular manufacturing methods to turn a company’s waste into another’s raw material, too. Boilers and turbines can be re-purposed for combined heat and power to better meet the needs of manufacturers, and all orphaned oil and gas wells would be capped.

“Climate change is already causing damage in the Ohio River Valley,” authors wrote. “Severe storms have damaged our infrastructure and flooded our homes, communities and farms and made people sick.”

Publicly funded projects outlined in the strategy include upgrading the Rural Grid Modernization Program to give all Americans access to broadband internet. Similar to past initiatives, it could create tens of thousands of construction, maintenance and utility jobs.

Building an Appalachian rail corridor connecting rural areas to urban cores would provide a less-expensive form of transportation, according to the plan.

This would reduce the amount of money Appalachians spend on petroleum products imported from outside the region, the plan notes. Federal policymakers can further improve Appalachia’s transportation network by expanding public options and offer electric vehicle subsidies.

“The economy really does come down to people working, buying and selling stuff,” said Hannah Halbert, Policy Matters Ohio executive director. “People are the economy, and what’s good for people is good for the economy.”

Public construction projects would involve labor agreements, prevailing wages and apprentice-utilization requirements to ensure quality work under the blueprint, with a large share of apprentices coming from low-income, underrepresented communities.

Company leadership would have to honor workers’ freedom to unionize and ensure genuine opportunities for fossil fuel workers. Skilled laborers would not be asked to involuntarily relocate or retrain. “In fact, we need coal miners, plant workers and oil and gas to help us,” Woodrum said.

The coalition also demands public officials support those who contracted black lung disease and other chronic health problems while working in extraction industries. “These workers must be able to retire with dignity, with the health care they need as well as the retirement pensions they deserve,” authors said.

Average income in Appalachia has largely stagnated or declined in the past 40 years, according to Keystone Research Center executive director Stephen Herzenberg. In the four decades prior — from the late 1930s to the late 1970s — regional income tripled or quadrupled.

“The people of Appalachia have a great work ethic,” he said. “They expect to be paid fairly and to be protected and respected on the job. But for the past 40 years, almost none of the benefits of economic growth have been shared with working people in our region. Corporations and the politicians they control have held wages down.”

A copy of the full blueprint can be found at: reimagineappalachia.org.

We all live downstream of energy & environmental issues

By Evan Hansen, Opinion – Editorial, Charleston Gazette – Mail, October 19, 2019

In his October 2nd op-ed, United Mineworkers of America President Cecil Roberts makes an excellent point. We should work together to develop a more sustainable, robust economy in Appalachia that provides opportunity for every working family, including coal miners. I couldn’t agree more.

We needed to start this conversation at least a decade ago. This became evident when I co-authored a report in 2010 that concluded:

……. “Coal production in Central Appalachia is on the decline, and this decline will likely continue in the coming decades. Given the numerous challenges working against any substantial recovery of the region’s coal industry, and that production is projected to decline significantly in the coming decades, diversification of Central Appalachian economies is now more critical than ever. State and local leaders should support new economic development across the region, especially in the rural areas set to be the most impacted by a sharp decline in the region’s coal economy.” ….

I’m not a psychic, and I don’t tell fortunes. But I do review data. Even in 2010, it was clear that coal production was plummeting in West Virginia as natural gas drilling picked up steam, renewables dropped in price and the rich coal reserves in the southern coalfields dwindled.

While this decline in coal production was predictable, I couldn’t imagine back then that I would get elected to the House of Delegates, where I now have a window into the policies that state leaders implement — or fail to implement — as this crisis gets worse.

And it truly is a crisis. Thousands of miners have lost their jobs. As coal companies declare bankruptcy, miners, retirees and their families face the prospects of losing pensions and health care benefits that they earned through years of hard work. Communities are breaking down, school systems are in trouble and the state budget is more difficult to balance. Drug addiction is rampant, life expectancy is down and thousands of children are in need of loving foster homes.

Many state leaders knew that this downward spiral was coming to West Virginia, but refused to publicly acknowledge it, let alone enact policies that, in Cecil’s words, would develop a more sustainable, robust economy. The result? A cruel transition toward poverty, hopelessness, and addiction.

Recently on the House floor, I spoke about the need for a just transition. A just transition starts with acknowledging reality — that Wests Virginia coal production has dropped from 162 to just 95 million tons since 2001. And that it is likely to drop further if more coal-fired power plants close. There will be fewer good, high-paying union coal mining jobs.

But a just transition also acknowledges that it’s unfair for coal miners — who have sacrificed so much over generations for this state and country — to be left behind as the country’s energy production shifts. In a just transition, we appreciate this history while fighting for new opportunities for miners and their families.

>>> Evan Hansen is a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from Monongalia County and president of Downstream Strategies, an environmental and economic development consulting company.

##########################

Renewable energy will power almost half of the Virginia government by 2022

From an Article by Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury, October 18, 2019

Virginia’s state government will get 45 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2022, officials announced Friday morning, exceeding a target established by Gov. Ralph Northam in a recent executive order committing the state to making its electric grid carbon free by 2050.

Both Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest electric utility, and the VA governor’s office hailed the agreement as the largest contract by a state government for renewable energy.

“Clean and renewable energy is a critical key to fighting climate change and is one of the most effective tools we have to address and mitigate these impacts,” said Secretary of Natural Resources Matthew J. Strickler. “Today’s announcement, along with several other clean energy related initiatives currently underway, clearly demonstrate that Virginia is serious about investing in clean energy, reducing carbon emissions, and cleaning up air pollution to improve our environment.”

The Local Union Shop is Growing Rapidly

From an Article by Dan Heyman, Public News Service – WV, August 19, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The fight to put West Virginia workers in Marcellus jobs seems to be bringing results, at least in one big part of the natural-gas industry.

Unions and companies in the midstream sector of the state’s natural-gas boom say those jobs are now being filled by trained, well-paid West Virginia workers. The midstream part of the natural-gas industry includes building and maintaining the plants that take the valuable liquids – ethane and butane – from the gas.

According to Tom Gray, president of the Upper Ohio Valley Building Trades Council and the business manager for Laborers Local 1149 in Wheeling, the union is growing rapidly because they’re putting people in those jobs as fast as they can.

“Probably a year and a half ago, we were down to in the neighborhood of 450 members,” he said. “Today we’re up closer to 800.”

Blue Racer Midstream is a joint venture of Dominion and Caiman Energy that has just taken over ownership of Dominion’s big Natrium plant in Marshall County. Blue Racer has won praise from the construction unions for its use of a contractor who employs local workers in expansion of the Natrium plant. According to CEO Jack Lafield, they’re already in discussions with other companies that may want to locate next to the Natrium site, and use the liquids produced there as feedstock.

“We’re there to prosper for the long term and bring a new facility on in a region that has unfortunately seen a lot of facilities rusting,” Layfield said. “It’ll be a long-term relationship; it’s not a short-term deal.”

Tom Gray said the construction unions in the Northern Panhandle see the midstream part of the gas industry as providing good blue-collar careers in a number of fields.

“An electrician or a carpenter. An operator or a pipe fitter. Good-paying wages with benefits. There’s fifteen different crafts that make up the upper Ohio Valley building and trades, and all of those crafts are taking in people.”

For several years, unions and citizen groups had criticized the industry for hiring out-of-state labor. The unions now say their efforts are working.

>>>>>> See also:

WV “CTCs to begin training students for oil, gas work”

>>>>>> Tomorrow: “Cracker plant still on WV’s agenda”