The oft-cited "war on coal" was once again examined by the GOP-led House of Representatives July 16, this time in a field hearing in Abingdon, Va.
The hearing was led by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., and featured a number of people who believe the EPA's proposed regulations of new sources of greenhouse gases would impact them or their company in a negative way.
"I am deeply concerned about many things going on in America right now — the weak economy, stubbornly high unemployment, skyrocketing federal spending, Obamacare and others," Whitfield said. "But if I were to point to a single Obama administration policy that I want to stop more than anything else, it would have to be the war on coal."
The "war" has consisted of a number of events presided by policymakers and judges. While there have been victories on both sides, Whitfield said Congress needs to take the lead and not depend on the courts to protect the coal industry from the EPA.
The location of the energy and power subcommittee is the same city that hosts the headquarters of Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest employers among Appalachian coal companies.
Paul Vining, president of Alpha Natural Resources, said his company is "accustomed to growing," but due to a number of factors, mines are being idled and jobs are being lost.
"This is the first downturn the coal industry has had to weather," Vining said. "Energy markets are cyclical. Natural gas prices are historically volatile and are certain to increase. Seasons change. As electricity demands increase, suppliers react and the market stabilizes."
That, he says is how a market it supposed to work. Vining said the EPA is "significantly and artificially" influencing domestic energy markets through its rulemaking process.
"While there is no question that our industry is being detrimentally impacted, I would respectfully asset that this not just a war on coal," Vining told the subcommittee. "What we are experiencing is a war on affordable electricity, a significant building block of American prosperity, and it will be American consumers, small business and an already struggling domestic manufacturing sector that will the price in the years ahead."
Vining said the agency is promoting natural gas as a "one fuel alternative." He added that for little gain, the rules would handicap economic health of the nation.
Dominion, an energy producer that uses both coal and gas for power generation, was represented by CEO Thomas F. Farrell II. He said he would recommend some major changes to the rule, including tailoring emissions limits to the fuel source.
Combined cycle gas and advanced coal facilities, he said should have different standards. New coal-fired plant emission limits should be raised and pollution control technologies should not be classified as new units, he added.
Currently, the rule sets a cap on emission of carbon dioxide of 1,000 pounds per megawatt hour. Farrell said to be effective the limit should be raised 10 percent — to 1,100 pounds for natural gas — and doubled for coal plants.
The increase for natural gas plants Farrell suggests is because 1,000 pounds is based on vendor design specifications, and not actual emissions. He said in reality, emissions in excess of 1,000 pounds are likely even at combined cycle gas plants.
"The adoption of EPA's proposed standard will lead, in our view, to an undesirable national policy: abandoning coal, one of our most abundant natural resources," Farrell said. "… It is important to note that in the history of Clean Air Act implementation, EPA has never set a single standard for all power plants based on an emissions limit that can be achieved by one fuel only and by one technology with the lowest emissions rate."
Farrell said it is short-sighted to exclude coal from the fuel mix. History of the power industry, he said, shows fuel diversity has an important affect on affordability and reliability of power.
The only hope to build a new coal-fired plant would lie in carbon capture and storage technologies. Farrell and many other experts have declared CCS technologies could be years away from economic scalability.
"Simply put, performance standards will not succeed at forcing the adoption of CCS technologies," he said. "The CCS requirement will create an insurmountable hurdle to obtaining financing and securing public utility commission approval for new coal stations."
Employers weren't the only ones who testified, however. Donna Kessinger, a single mother from Wyoming County, traveled to Virginia to tell her story.
Kessinger is a certified electrician and mechanic and a union coal miner. She said she is incredibly proud of the work that she does.
"My industry is under attack, and that means my job is under attack," she said. " America's future economic prosperity depends on the availability of affordable, abundant coal resources. Furthermore, my livelihood and the well-being of my family is at stake."
Joe Gary Street, a small business owner in Virginia, said he concerned about coal being chased out of his Buchanan County community.
"Although we've tried to diversify our economy with manufacturing, jobs, etc., the geographic locations (too far from the interstate) and lack of flat land makes it nearly impossible. The population is so dependent on coal that if we were to abandon it, the only word to describe Buchanan County will be devastation."
The wide impact of shutting down coal operations extend beyond those affect through indirect jobs. At the hearing, two companies outside of the coal and power generation business said that higher energy costs would threaten operations.
"As energy prices continue to escalate, we are losing the cost advantage of the automation investment," said Dan Nation, division president of Parkdale Mills, a textile company. "… Over the last few years, our power costs have continued to rise, and we are unable to pass these increases through the supply chain. What is more concerning to Parkdale and other manufactures is the Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard which will create even larger energy cost escalations that our supply chain can not absorb."
The standard, Nation said, is in effect penalizing heavy users of electricity in an attempt to reduce consumption. Energy-intensive manufacturers, he said, don't have the option to reduce power use as a residential consumer might.
His concerns were shared by Scott E. Weyandt, the director of sustainability and compliance at Shearer's Foods, the nation's largest producer of kettle chips and producer of other salty snack products.
"Shearer's has already witnessed shifts in our supply chain suggesting that the outcomes of GHG build up and climate change are already impacting growing seasons, resulting in higher commodity pricing which shows no signs of slowing," Weyandt said. "Additionally, Shearer's is very sensitive to fluctuations in energy markets, where even small can result in devastating impacts to fiscal prosperity."
Shearer's, Weyandt said, is already attempting to increase energy efficiency, but believes attempts to control greenhouse gas impacts should be done in way that is both economically and scientifically sound.
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