In the taped speech, Sen. Byrd spoke about real concerns in the coalfields: fewer
miners are employed, remaining coal seams are becoming thinner and there's a declining
demand for energy. But he says none of these problems are caused by the permit
holdups.
“Now let’s speak the truth,”
he said. “The truth, nothing but the truth. The most important factor in
maintaining coal related jobs is demand for coal. Scapegoating and stoking fear
among workers over the permitting process is counter-productive.
“Coal companies want a large
stockpile of permits in their hip pockets because that implies, implies
stability to potential investors. But when coal industry representatives stir
up public anger towards federal regulatory agencies, it can damage the state’s
ability to work with those agencies to West Virginia’s benefit.”
Coal isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, Byrd said. Alternative energy sources
aren’t abundant enough, or cheap enough yet.
“Now that is a stubborn fact
that vexes, vexes I say, some in the environmental community,” he said. “But,
I’ve got to say, it is utter reality.”
Byrd had strong words for West Virginia’s elected leaders and the coal industry. He says when
they show their frustration and anger toward the EPA, as they’ve been doing
lately, the state risks eliminating itself from any productive dialogue. And the
senator was very clear about how he feels about suggestions by State Senate
Majority Leader Truman Chafin and the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce that he
and Sen. Jay Rockefeller should refuse to pass the health care bill until the
EPA releases the permits they’re scrutinizing.
“I believe that the notion of
holding the health care of over 300 million Americans hostage in exchange for a
handful of coal permits is beyond just being foolish,” Byrd said. “It is
morally indefensible. It is a non-starter. And it puts the entire state of West Virginia and the coal industry in a terrible, a terrible, a
terrible light.”
Throughout the speech, taped
in the Senate recording studio, Byrd spoke about inevitable changes in store
for West Virginia and the coal industry. Climate change legislation is
coming, he said, and denying the science is counterproductive.
“Now listen to this; to be
part of any solution, one must first acknowledge a problem,” he said. “To deny
the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand and
say, ‘Deal me out!’ West
Virginia would
be much smarter not to say that but to stay at the table.”
Some sort of climate legislation will probably pass, he said, because most Americans want it.
But he advises West Virginians to stop fighting losing battles and work on a
compromise.
“West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or
they can choose to resist, resist I say, and be overrun by it,” he said. “One
thing is clear: the time is now, the time has arrived, for the people of West Virginia to think long and think hard about which course they
want to choose.”