TribLive News - Rep. Kelly at Worthington Mine Touts Bill to Aid Coal Industry

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By Brad Pedersen

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, came to a Worthington mine on Monday to drum up support for legislation he introduced to stop proposed federal regulations of power plants that he said would cripple the coal industry.

Kelly met with Rosebud Mining Co. Vice President Jim Barker and workers at a press conference at the Long Run Mine to tout his House Bill 4048, the "Coal Country Protection Act."

He stood in the center of a ring of miners and called the legislation "a common sense bill" that was a direct response to last week's proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon monoxide emissions at power plants -- a proposal he said could cut coal production by about 18 percent.

"People think coal is the lowest of the low, and that it has a terrible effect on the environment, our air and water," Kelly said. "The EPA is bent on putting coal out of business. It doesn't believe in coal and what it's done and how it's become the backbone of this country and its development."

The bill has a companion piece of legislation on the Senate floor that aims to halt the proposed EPA regulations until officials determine how they will affect jobs, the country's economic recovery and what impact they will have on a generation of electricity.

Kelly preached to a supportive crowd at Long Run. Kittanning-based Rosebud Mining employs 1,200 of the 36,200 Pennsylvanians in the coal mining industry. The company mines about 7 million tons of coal per year, a number that Barker said would be cut drastically if the EPA regulations go into effect.

"As an industry, we're battling a stigma that was created in the '50s, '60s and '70s, when mining regulations weren't in place to control pollution and land reclamation," Barker said. "People don't understand how much electricity we generate, and the tremendous amount of equipment and people in place that has cut pollution back by 89 percent since 1970."

Coal is used to generate about 40 percent of electricity across the country, said Barker, who is a board member of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance. Barker said he fears power costs could climb as emissions are limited in favor of wind- and solar-driven energy alternatives.

"The wind and solar technology just isn't there right now, so trying to rely on it for our energy needs over coal is only going to raise the cost of living for everybody," Barker said. "The rising cost isn't what's intended -- it's really an adverse consequence of good intentions."

Kelly urged about a dozen of Rosebud's miners to sign an online petition and go to the EPA's public hearing at the Federal Building in Pittsburgh on July 28 to oppose plans to limit carbon monoxide emissions.

"People need to show up, in force, and show them we are concerned about this, no matter our political parties," Kelly said. "It's important to get everyone interested in this because there is a lot we could lose."

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