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Bush statement heartens coal industry
Natural gas problems, growing energy
concerns raise promise of resurrection after Clinton era
The Patriot-News
Sunday, March 18, 2001
WASHINGTON -- The difference between White House administrations were stark last week when President Bush reversed course and abandoned a campaign pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
"It would have been the death knell for coal," said John Grasser of the National Mining Association. "We are pleased, there is no question about it."
Coal and oil industry leaders maintain it is too soon to assess the administration, but they are brimming with optimism these days. "We have our wish list," Grasser said.
The promotion of clean coal technology earned a passing note in Bush's address to a joint session of Congress, but during an interview last week he said promotion of coal and technology to produce systems that reduce pollutants will be a part of his energy policy.
"Part of the strategy has got to include coal and clean coal technology," Bush said during an interview with The Patriot-News and several regional newspapers. "Fifty percent of the energy right now in America, 50 percent of the energy that powers our electrical plants is from coal. So it's a major component, a major part of our energy mix right now. We've got to provide money to enhance clean coal technologies."
Democrats and their allies called last year's GOP presidential ticket the Big Oil pairing because of Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's industry ties, but coal industry officials see an ally in the White House. Natural gas, which has been used increasingly to fuel electric utilities -- and not the oil industry -- is coal's greatest rival, according to industry officials.
Coal barons like John W. Rich Jr., president of Waste Management Processors Inc. in Frackville and the owner of several other area coal companies, expect Bush to be more supportive than the Clinton administration.
"Here's a guy from an oil state talking about $2 billion ... that's great," said Rich, who is seeking federal assistance for a $300 million proposal to turn anthracite coal into diesel fuel that could cost $1.10 per gallon.
The budget outline sent to Congress last month calls for restructuring the clean coal technology program and providing $2 billion over the next 10 years to improve the environmental effect of coal use. But it offers few details and industry officials and members of Congress said the administration has not shared its plans.
It's already drawing skeptics on Capitol Hill.
"It's a shell game," said an aide to a coal state senator, noting Bush's proposal would pay for the program with money from the Clean Coal Technology fund and would redirect money from the Fossil Energy Research and Development Account used to fund non-coal research.
The U.S. Department of Energy was more responsive to Rich's queries during the past couple years, but like many in the coal industry he found the Clinton administration mostly hostile and unhelpful.
"They wouldn't even say the word coal," he said. "All they would say is natural gas."
Critics see Bush's decision on carbon dioxide emissions as a blatant capitulation to an industry that heavily supported Republicans. The coal mining industry contributed more than $3.8 million to parties and candidates in the 1999-2000 election cycle -- three times what it gave in 1995-96 -- with 88 percent going to Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
About 1.1 billion tons of coal was mined last year nationally, with about 80 percent to 90 percent consumed by electric utilities. Coal-fueled power plants generate about 52 percent of the electricity nationally and 60 percent in Pennsylvania.
But, about 95 percent of new power plants planned for the next 10-15 years are expected to be fueled by natural gas in part because of environmental concerns prompted by Clinton efforts to regulate plant emissions.
"The last eight years here we've seen the Clinton-Gore administration rule with a pretty Draconian regulatory policy," said Grasser. "We think they did a lot of things to do whatever they could to kill coal and mining."
But with natural gas now costing five times more than coal, the California energy crisis and a supportive White House, many coal industry leaders think utilities may rethink the shift to gas. They also cite the need for new pipelines to transport gas and the need for new exploration as additional troubles facing the natural gas industry.
The coal industry and government estimated the United States has a 250- to 300-year supply of coal at present consumption levels.