United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts loves college football.
He’s a long-time WVU season ticket holder and rarely misses a home game.
So it’s only natural that when talking about the EPA’s decision to delay 79 Appalachian surface coal mine permits, Roberts uses a sports analogy.
Roberts says the EPA’s recent announcement that it is withholding the permits—at least for now—is like a college football referee throwing a flag on the first play of a Mountaineer game. When Coach Bill Stewart asks what the flag is for, the ref says, “I’m not going to tell you.”
Roberts says, “Now, no one would find that to be fair, and it’s not.”
Roberts is among those trying to figure out why President Obama’s EPA has decided to further review the surface mine permits even though they have already been cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The EPA has said it wants to make sure the permits comply with the Clean Water Act, but Roberts says the EPA’s actions leave the coal industry in a state of flux.
“The EPA isn’t certain what should be done right now about mountaintop mining,” Roberts told me, “but as time goes by there are people that may very well be laid off because of that.”
What is needed from the EPA are definitive guidelines that coal operators can follow when making their permit applications. But instead, what the industry has now is uncertainty.
“We need rules that we can look at and if we disagree with them, we’ll fight over them in court or wherever,” Roberts said. “If we agree with them, we’ll try to comply with them. But right now, we have no rules.”
I reminded Roberts that this is his administration. He worked hard for candidate Barack Obama with the belief that he would be good for the United Mine Workers and working people in general. Is he disappointed?
Not yet. Roberts says there are other issues important to the union where Obama has delivered. For example, Mr. Obama chose long-time UMWA leader Joe Main to head the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Roberts again falls back to the football analogy. “We’re halfway through the first quarter,” Roberts said. “I think we should wait until the end of the four-year term which will be halftime and the end of the eight-year term which will be the full game and then evaluate what labor and working class people receive from this Presidency.”
True, safety is a key issue for the UMWA, and understandably so. But first workers have to actually have jobs at coal mines before safety is relevant.
Roberts and others with a direct interest in the economy of West Virginia and the Appalachian coal fields have put a lot of stock in the Obama Administration. The outcome of the EPA permitting controversy will go a long way in determining whether they are in the huddle or just riding the bench.
