War on Coal

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. I want to thank the gentleman from Kentucky this evening for this opportunity to talk about coal.

I stand with my colleagues to show support for an all-of-the-above energy strategy. Montana possesses an abundance of hydropower, oil, sun, wind, natural gas, and coal. And coal is a very important piece of that equation.

Coal provides the fuel for roughly 40 percent of the electricity used in the United States. You know, I see the electric cars going down the street; and I'm not opposed to electric cars, but they ought to say ``powered by coal'' on them in terms of understanding where the source of the power is to power these electric cars.

Coal keeps energy costs low. It helps keep American businesses competitive, and it allows middle Americans to keep more of their hard-earned dollars during these challenging economic times.

In Montana, we are seeing firsthand the critical role that coal plays in the energy sector. In my home State, it is creating hundreds of jobs, fostering important relationships with our Indian reservations, being a leader in coal production for our country and leading the way for coal exports.

I support this industry because it enables more young Montanans to put their training and education to work and to stay at home with their job instead of exporting our talent to other places so Grandma and Grandpa have to fly to see the grandkids versus visiting them next door.

You see, in my home State of Montana, we boast the largest coal reserve in the Nation. The Powder River Basin, which spans across southern Montana and northern Wyoming, contains nearly 3.4 billion tons of coal reserves.

I recently met with representatives from Arch Coal, a company that is ready to invest millions of dollars into developing the Otter Creek mine in southeastern Montana.

Developing these resources creates jobs, injects millions of dollars into the economy. It helps lower energy costs, and, importantly, it creates tax revenues for our schools.

Cloud Peak Energy recently signed an agreement with the Crow Tribe to open up access to more than 1.4 billion tons of coal on the northern Powder River Basin, which would help inject millions of dollars into the Crow reservation's economy. I met with Chairman Old Coyote of the Crow Tribe. He said they have a vision of becoming financially independent on the reservation because of these coal opportunities.

These are exciting opportunities, but the industry is under attack. Fringe environmental groups continue to pressure the administration and others to slow production and slow economic development. This must change.

As Montana's Congressman, I'm committed to working for commonsense reforms that ensure that our natural resources like coal can be developed responsibly.

With that, I thank the rest of my colleagues here tonight for helping do the same.

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