MORGANTOWN – The chair and vice chair of the state Senate Energy Committee, and the director of WVU’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research offered some encouraging words to state coal industry leaders Tuesday.
While coal employment and production has declined significantly over the past 10-15 years, BBER’s John Deskins said, “Coal still generates a really important economic impact for the state of West Virginia.”
Deskins and Energy Chair Randy Smith, R-Tucker, and Vice Chair Rupie Phillips, R-Logan, addressed a joint spring meeting of the West Virginia Coal Association and the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute held at the Morgantown Event Center.
Smith told the audience, “I consider myself not only a friend of coal, I am coal.” He’s an underground miner and had just come from his worksite to speak during Tuesday’s luncheon.
“The biggest problem we have right now is how the country looks at coal,” he said. “No one has any common sense anymore.”
But green energy is here and as Energy chair he deals with legislation and issues from all the energy sectors.
On the horizon next session, he said, is possible legislation concerning rare earth minerals. A couple companies would like to set up in West Virginia, where they can pull the minerals from mine water. “The dirtier the mine water is the more rare earth minerals are in that water.”
Two sessions during Wednesday’s meeting will be devoted to rare earth minerals.
Smith said he was pleased his bill requiring bonding for wind and solar facilities, SB 492, passed last session. “We have to be sure they are held on the same playing field as other industries going forward. … It’s asinine to put these structures up and not have any bonding to take them down when they’re done.”
Phillips also is a miner. “I love coal,” he said. He was told his love for coal wouldn’t make him any friends in Charleston. “Charleston don’t vote for me. My district votes for me. My district is coal.”
He opposes subsidies for renewables, he said. Without those subsidies, they can’t compete against coal or natural gas. He cited the widespread winter storm power outages in Texas, and California now urging electric vehicle owners to only charge their cars during certain hours as the heat wave taxes the power grid.
He doesn’t oppose renewables, he said. But, “it’s a no brainer. That stuff don’t work.”
Deskins spoke following the luncheon. West Virginia coal production is down 43% from the 1995 level , and down 50% nationally from that level. West Virginia coal once made up 16% of all coal production, now it’s 13%.
But coal is still a big factor in the state economy, he said. During the past year, it made up 40% of all the state’s overseas exports.
And coal still generates, dollars, he said, citing figures from BBER’s spring report, The Economic Impact of Coal and Coal-fired Power Generation in West Virginia.
The Dominion Post wrote about that report in April and Deskins cited some of the numbers from it.
Mining generated about $9.1 billion in total economic activity in 2019, supported 27,000 jobs and $2.1 billion in wages, and generated about $514 million in tax revenue, Deskins said.
And coal-fired power plants generated about $4.8 billion in economic activity (including the purchase of domestic coal), supported 6,600 jobs and $725 million in wages, and generated more than $97 million in taxes.
West Virginia has eight coal-fired plants, including two in Monongalia County – Longview and Fort Martin – and one in Marion, the Grant Town plant. A third Mon plant, Morgantown Energy Associates, also operated in 2019. It no longer burns coal.
BBER estimates the total economic impact of the Mon plants at $1.1 billion, with 1,611 jobs (direct, indirect and induced) and $163.8 million in wages. The Grant Town plant generated $53.2 million in total economic impact, 80 jobs and $7.5 million in wages.
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