ROANOKE, W.Va. — Hoping to jump start a dialogue on how to save West Virginia’s beleaguered coal industry, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts is calling for stakeholders to pool their efforts. Speaking to the Governor’s Energy Conference at Stonewall Resort in Lewis County Monday, Roberts suggested a public/private partnership to create a market for coal while a lawsuit over the Clean Power Plan is pending.
“We should take the initiative here to say we’re going to have a robust coal industry in the state of West Virginia and we don’t care who the president is or who is running the EPA,” Roberts said on MetroNews Talkline soon after his address to the conference. “We’re going to see that our people work and we have jobs. We’ll have jobs building power plants, we’ll have jobs mining coal, and we’ll have jobs at the utility. No state needs these job more than we do.”
Roberts made the ambitious suggestion which takes advantage of 1985 legislation enabling the state to sell bonds to build a new power plant.
“Build coal fired power plants utilizing carbon capture and sequestration or build plants that will burn coal and natural gas,” said Roberts. “What we have to do is anticipate what’s going to happen in 40 years.”
Roberts said under the language of the Clean Power Plan there is no plan for coal at all past 2040.
“Look people can shoot this full of holes, but we need to figure out a way forward here. We just have to face the reality this is getting worse,” he said.”When we get to 2040 for coal, no matter where you live whether it’s West Virginia or the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, it’s all gone. I think that’s a tragedy.”
Roberts proposal raised as many questions as it answered. Carbon sequestration technology to date hasn’t proven to be viable. The idea was tried in West Virginia in an experimental form and wasn’t feasible. A test plant in Mississippi has also shown little progress with massive cost overruns and a budget busting price tag.
“Quite frankly there’s not enough work being done on this,” Roberts said.
There are also concerns about hybrid power plants which utilize both coal and natural gas as a fuel. Many companies have already retrofitted units which formerly burned coal into natural gas units. It’s unlikely the natural gas industry will be interested in sharing their newfound windfall with another industry.
Roberts was willing to concede his idea might be flawed, but he added at least it’s an idea.
“We’ve got to face the realization of where we are right now. Also, we’ve got to figure out what is the next step forward,’ Roberts said. “If somebody’s got a better idea, then scrap mine and lets go with it. But lets come up with some ideas to preserve a coal industry in the state of West Virginia.”