Roberts, Manchin are energized by coal
Cecil Roberts, international president of United Mine Workers of America, speaks at a recent union event.
Associated Press
In this file photo, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin pauses during a television news interview on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Coal isn’t warming many hearts, or homes, in the United States these days. It is a fossil-fuel energy source with a diminished market and reputation, one that when combusted, produces carbon dioxide emissions.
In a world dealing with climate change as well as COVID-19, there is a strong sentiment to transition away from this abundant but problematic resource.
On Monday morning, however, a couple of influential leaders discussed coal’s attributes and the need for it to coexist with natural gas and renewables. United Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin – men with deep West Virginia roots – spoke during a National Press Club Virtual Headliners event.
“Coal miners have been managing difficult times,” said Roberts, a sixth-generation miner originally from the southern part of the state. “The federal government has not done a good job of managing in the coalfields.
“I’m very interested in saving coalfield jobs. We’ve had about all we can take with people losing them. I’m for any jobs we can create, but they have to be good-paying.”
Manchin, West Virginia’s senior senator in Congress and a coal family member, said: “American coal miners have the backbone of the coal industry for generations, to produce energy we’ve relied on and still rely on. As chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I want to make sure coal miners are not left behind in a clean energy future.
“We must create incentives to bring back well-paying jobs.”
Coal jobs, indeed, have been slashed in recent times. Lisa Nicole Matthews, president of the National Press Club and moderator of Monday’s one-hour session, said the industry has 44,000 miners nationwide – a 52% drop from 92,000 a decade ago. Roberts, UMWA’s president since 1995, said 7,000 coalfield jobs were lost just over the past year.
One way to try to combat that, both officials agreed, is through carbon capture and sequestration. It is a process that can slash CO2 emissions through a set of technologies, and can be done at new or existing coal- and gas-fired power plants.
“If we want to help Mother Earth, we have to clean carbon capture sequestration,” the senator said. “It’s called global climate change, not U.S. climate change, not West Virginia climate change.”
Roberts said, “We can create coal mining jobs with carbon capture and sequestration, and one way is to start making steel in this country again. We have the met coal.”
He lamented the loss of steelmaking facilities to foreign interests decades ago. If more steel plants were here, there would be an increased demand for metallurgical coal, a key element in steel manufacturing. That would be a win for both domestic industries.
“We ship coal all around the world,” Roberts said. “Companies that used to produce steel in the United States have closed.”
While coal usage is waning in the United States, Manchin echoed the sentiment that the resource is commonly used in nations around the globe, and could be more effectively employed here. He pointed out that “667 coal-fired power plants are being constructed. Zero are in the United States.
“We need to make sure we’re saving coal communities and manufacturing,” Manchin said. “These workers can make anything they want. Give them a chance. So much is being produced (abroad).”
The number of mine workers who have been displaced in recent years disturbs Roberts. He said some have taken jobs in related fields, often for lower pay, but others “go straight to unemployment.
“We need real money, real jobs and a real future,” he said of his union brethren. “Appalachia has lost so many coal and manufacturing jobs.”