Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in really strong support of H.R. 2824.

I think if we go back to the President's original candidacy, he said: Listen, if you want to continue to make electricity using coal-fired power plants, you can do it, but we are going to bankrupt you.

There is no question about the war on coal. It is factual. Now, we come here today, and I think that--the area of the country that I represent is western Pennsylvania. It is hard to look at a source that is so abundant, so accessible, so affordable, so reliant, and so sustainable that keeps our energy costs lower and creates thousands of jobs.

The administration's efforts have not only eliminated people who are mining coal, they have absolutely eliminated entire communities and wiped them off the face of the Earth.

Now, we look at a piece of legislation, and we say wait a minute. In 2008, we had a rule that received certification from the Environmental Protection Agency and complied fully with the Clean Water Act.

So the question becomes: How good does the coal energy have to become in order to receive a pat on the back from the administration?

The answer is they can never reach that level. They will never be accepted. It will never be part of our energy strategy. It will never lead America to be independent from every place else in the world.

All you have to ask yourself is: What in the world are we doing to the people we represent?

This is not a Republican strategy or a Democrat strategy. This is an American strategy. If it is truly about energy and about creating jobs and protecting our environment, it is all there, gentleman, and has been there for years.

Why would the administration spend $10 billion to get an answer that didn't comply with what they thought it was going to be? So automatically, the answer has to be: These folks didn't do the test the right way. They didn't come up with the results that we needed, so we are going to get rid of them and get somebody else in here.

Mr. Chairman, the lights are going out across this country. Our position in the world is being challenged right now, in a country that has been so blessed for so long with abundant, affordable, and accessible energy, and to sit back and say: You know what? They are getting better, but they are never going to be good enough for us; they are never going to quite reach that metric they have to reach.

In fact, the bottle of water the gentleman just showed, I have got to tell you: Take a bottle of Fiji water off the shelf; it won't comply either.

So we have got to start asking ourselves, where is it that they are going with this? Is this a way to prop up an agenda by the administration or is this a way to prop up the American success story? Are we going to go forward and truly achieve independence from energy from anyplace else in the world other than our own or are we going to continue to fight over things that don't make sense to the American people but yet somehow make sense in this House?

Listen, what we are doing today just makes sense. We have already run the traps on it. We have already run the tests. We have done all the metrics. Coal is good for America. Coal has always been good for America. Coal has cleaned itself up incredibly and will continue to do so. These are the most responsible people. I would invite some of my friends who have never been down in a coal mine, travel with me to western Pennsylvania. Go down in the Bailey mine. Go down 700 feet and see how they are scrubbing coal, and then say to me that they are not doing it the right way.

The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I really want to ask my colleagues today, let's take a real good look at this, at what we are doing. In a country that so badly now is looking for leadership across all phases so that we can retain our position in the world, let's take a look at where we are today with this coal strategy. If it is truly a war on coal and if it is truly a war we can't win, then I say that is not why we came here.

I strongly urge the passage of H.R. 2824.

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