The public relations campaign to combat the veto of the Spruce Mine permit this week has begun.
“Today’s unprecedented action by the EPA offers more proof that this administration and EPA are paying lip service to the employment and economic challenges this state and our country are facing,” said Bryan Brown, West Virginia Executive Director of FACES of Coal. “Every road project, construction project or mine site that has received valid CWA 404 permits in the past is now in jeopardy of having that permit vetoed or revoked. It’s absurd. FACES of Coal will be looking to our elected leaders in Congress for action in defending our jobs and the opportunity for economic stability.”
The FACES of Coal website depicts a graphic with a job loss counter on it and to the left the smiling faces of happy coal mining employees and families. Mining a little deeper into the site you will find the claim that mining actually enhances the surrounding area.
FACES of Coal claims that the “only 3 percent of the Appalachian region has been disturbed by surface mining, and all mines that are not active are reclaimed and restored”. Reclamation and restoration do not mean the mountain will ever be the same as it was.
Mountaintop removal reclamation projects often involve planting blasted and terraced mountainsides with non-native grasses. (Early surface mine reclamation would sometimes simply abandoned the site.) Perhaps one of the more unexpected outcomes of reclamation comes from Mingo County, W. Va., where reclamation turned a blast site into what’s now known as the Twisted Gun Golf Course.
Another claim is the coal industry contributes tax revenue to federal and state governments but provides no statistics. The site does not mention the billions in state and federal subsidies it receives.
The U.S. coal industry enjoyed subsidies of around $17 billion between 2002 and 2008, including tax credits for production of “nonconventional” fuels ($14.1 billion), tax breaks on coal royalties ($986 million), exploration, and development breaks ($342 million), according to a study by the Environmental Law Institute.
On top of this federal largesse, state and local governments coddle coal with hundreds of millions per year. The Kentucky state government’s net subsidy to coal is $115 million. Virginia grants tax credits of about $26 million to power plants just to burn Virginia coal, and doles out credits ranging from 40 cents to $2 per ton for another 20 million tons not burned by power plants. Bioregionalism at its finest.
The other big federal subsidy received by the coal industry is the $1.5B in health care for miners suffering from black lung disease. Black lung is an occupational disease that might be prevented if the coal industry implemented more stringent safety measures.
Big coal’s claim to be a driving economic factor and its benefit to the Appalachian states can be summed up by this news bite about Kentucky lawmakers worrying, “economically poor but coal-rich” state will suffer if Obama reduces subsidies to the industry. Why is it the richness of the resources extracted by industries like big coal never stick to the ribs of the working poor?
For more on child poverty in America and the coal producing states see our exclusive report filed by Shanley Geddry, here.
