Coal Jobs at 14-year High in Appalachia
MSHA data show 23,353 jobs in W.Va.
Charleston Gazette
18 November 2011
By Ken Ward Jr.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Despite complaints about the Obama
administration's "war on coal," employment in the Appalachian
mining industry is at a 14-year high, according to new government
data and congressional testimony.
Congressional allies of the coal industry this week intensified
their attack on the administration, with three hearings to collect
testimony critical of water protection rules and a proposed effort
to streamline the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement.
Nationwide, though, the total number of coal jobs is at its
highest level since 1996, with 90,354 jobs in 2011, according to
federal Mine Safety and Health Administration data.
In Appalachia, the 59,059 jobs reported were the most since 1997,
according to the MSHA data. In West Virginia, coal employment
reached its highest level since 1992, with 23,353 jobs, the data
shows.
Matt Wasson, director of programs for the group Appalachian
Voices, said his review of the MSHA data shows the number of coal
jobs in the region has increased by 10 percent since the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency began a crackdown on
mountaintop-removal mining in June 2009.
"In other words, the idea of a 'permitorium' on coal mine
permitting that House Republicans are pushing out is completely
and demonstrably false," Wasson said Friday. "The hysterical
reaction of coal companies to any and all regulations to protect
the safety of workers and communities near their mines is about
profits, not jobs."
This week, House Republicans held two hearings aimed at
criticizing the OSM, and Senate Democrats held a separate hearing
to question the Interior Department's proposal to merge some OSM
administrative and mine reclamation functions with the federal
Bureau of Land Management.
"The Obama administration has openly sought ways to get rid of the
coal industry," said Rep. Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican who
recently has led the GOP charge against Obama's coal policies.
Among other things, Johnson argued this week that the proposed
OSM-BLM merger -- which most observers worry could weaken federal
strip-mine enforcement -- "is yet another action by the Obama
administration in its ongoing war on American coal."
During a Friday hearing, two former OSM subcontractors -- a coal
industry consultant and a longtime industry lawyer -- alleged that
agency officials tried to get them to soften the potential job
losses projected in a study of the OSM's proposal to rewrite the
federal stream "buffer zone" rule.
J. Steven Gardner, the industry consultant, testified that he and
a team of outside subcontractors working on the study "unanimously
refused to use a 'fabricated' baseline scenario to soften the
production loss numbers," Gardner stated in written testimony.
Gardner and the other witness, lawyer Joseph Zaluski, disputed
previous testimony in which OSM Director Joe Pizarchik tried to
distance agency officials from the job and production analysis.
"We met with them constantly," Zaluski said. "They approved
methodologies, especially with regard to production shifts."
Since taking office, the Obama administration has sought to reduce
the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, and has
expressed serious concerns about the growing body of science
linking the practice to a variety of adverse health effects for
nearby residents. However, President Obama himself blocked the EPA
from implementing tougher new smog standards that would have
reduced pollution from coal-fired power plants, and advocates for
action on global warming have criticized Obama for doing little on
that issue.
At the same time, the United Mine Workers union has praised Obama
for putting former union safety director Joe Main in charge of
MSHA and increasing enforcement efforts since the Upper Big Branch
Mine Disaster in April 2010. GOP leaders in Congress, meanwhile,
have blocked new mine-safety legislation and are working against
proposed MSHA rules aimed at ending black lung disease.
UMW spokesman Phil Smith said his organization is seeing
employment gains by union members working at Northern Appalachian
mines that produce coal for power plants and Alabama mines that
produce coal for steel mills.
Most mountaintop-removal mines in Central Appalachia are non-union
operations, and the UMW has not yet seen job losses at the few
large surface mines where it represents workers, Smith said.
"That is because they are working at mines that have current
permits," Smith said. "We'll see what happens when those permits
need to be extended or new permits obtained."
One West Virginia operator, Alpha Natural Resources, is facing a
specific federal court action to block one of its Logan County
permits. However, Alpha told industry analysts early this month
it's not worried now about any permitting problems.
"We feel pretty good about what we have permitted so far," Alpha
CEO Kevin Crutchfield said. "There's nothing in 2012 that is
contingent upon any sort of regulatory relaxation or need."
Last month, when the industry won an initial court victory over
part of the EPA's permit crackdown, National Mining Association
President Hal Quinn said, "with this decision, coal communities
can get back to the business of producing affordable energy for
Americans and put more Americans back to work."
New charts posted on the industry group's website, though, promote
the fact that coal mining employment nationwide has increased by
8.5 percent since 2001.
"There is evidence that strictly regulated coal mining is
producing more jobs while protecting the environment," West
Virginia University law professor Pat McGinley told a House
Natural Resources subcommittee Friday morning.
However, the current increase in jobs comes amid government
projections that coal production in Central Appalachian -- meaning
Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky -- will decline
rapidly through the rest of the decade.
McGinley told lawmakers that if they're concerned about coalfield
jobs, they might spend their time examining why federal and state
agencies have not enforced post-mining land development
requirements for mountaintop-removal mining operations.
"When Congress enacted [the surface mining law] in 1977, it
recognized a tradeoff -- flattened mountain ridges would be
replaced by long-term economic development -- creating jobs in
coal regions where the boom/bust economic cycle results in high
unemployment and few opportunities," McGinley said. "For those who
desire jobs in the coalfields, one must ask - why has [the surface
mining act's] mandate been almost totally ignored?"
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.