Survival of the Coal Industry

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it's an honor to be standing before the House this evening to talk about a very, very important issue, an issue that is important not only to my constituents in eastern and southeastern Ohio, but to Americans across the Nation, and the issue is the survival of the coal industry.

Coal has provided America's energy engine for generations, and can for many future generations if we have policies out of this administration that reflect the value that the coal industry has meant to America and the future that it has in front of us.

Coal is an abundant, affordable, and reliable form of energy. Coal directly or indirectly employs nearly 800,000 Americans and supplies approximately 40 percent of our Nation's power generation. Coal mining employees across my district number in the thousands in eastern and southeastern Ohio. It also provides nearly 80 percent of Ohio's electricity, and it's the energy engine for Ohio's manufacturing industry which so many of my constituents depend on for their livelihood.

I'm very proud to be joined tonight, Mr. Speaker, by some of my colleagues who are equally passionate about the coal industry and its value to America, both in the past and in the future.

At this point, I yield to my friend and colleague from the great State of Kentucky's Sixth District, Representative Andy Barr.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank our colleague.

I think you can see, Mr. Speaker, the passion that's coming to Washington to advocate on the part of the coal industry. We're not just talking about a black rock that's dug out of the ground; we're talking about lives. We're talking about American lives. We're talking about jobs and the ability to put food on the table, to put clothes on our children, to provide a manufacturing base so that Americans have somewhere to work and to do what America knows how to do best--innovate and compete and solve problems.

I'm proud now to yield to another one of our colleagues, Representative Kevin Cramer, from the great State of North Dakota.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.

And the point that you just made and that our colleague from Kentucky made--it's not simply a war on coal, it's a war on American jobs. It's a war on the American way of life. We have to stand.

Mr. Speaker, I'm proud now to yield to another one of our colleagues who--no one in the House knows more about the impacts of the coal industry to the economy of her State and her region than does our colleague from West Virginia, Representative Shelley Moore Capito.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank the gentlewoman, and certainly we can see the passion that she brings to the table.

I think one of the things that is important for the American people to understand is this notion of energy independence and security. We hear those terms a lot, but not everybody understands what those terms really mean and how it affects them, their families, their future.

I think there are some lessons that can be learned about America's past that would help us understand how energy independence and security might affect our future, and I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about that. To do so, I want to set the stage just a little bit by taking us back to March of 2011 when right here in this Chamber the Prime Minister of Australia addressed a joint session of Congress. She came to this Chamber and she started her speech off by saying:

You know, I remember being a young girl sitting on my living room floor watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon, thinking to myself, ``Wow, those Americans can do anything.''

She went on to talk about America's and Australia's engagement in world issues, how America stood alongside of and often in front of Australia during World War II. At the end of her speech, she summarized by saying:

I'm not that young girl anymore. Today I'm the Prime Minister of our country, and yet still today I believe that Americans can do anything.

When she said that phrase the second time, this notion that Americans can do anything, you could have almost heard a pin drop in this Chamber. There was a hush as Members from the Senate, from the President's Cabinet, dignitaries, military leaders, Members of the House sort of took a collective cleansing breath, sucking that air in, that notion that Americans can do anything. It's not like we don't believe it. It's certainly not that we haven't proven it. But we don't hear it these days. We're certainly not teaching it to future generations the way we once did.

You see, when President Kennedy launched us on that great vision to put a man on the Moon in 10 years, he engaged every fabric of our society--our scientific community, our technological community, our academic community, our military, our economic will, our political will. And he said before the American people, We're not doing these things because they're easy. In fact, we're doing these things because they're hard and because by doing these things we're going to invent and innovate and discover things that we might not have discovered otherwise.

I'm paraphrasing what President Kennedy said, but that was the message that he delivered to the American people. He did such a good job of rallying the American people around this vision of American exceptionalism on that day that we didn't make it to the Moon in 10 years; we actually made it in 8 years. We saw one of the most expansive and innovative periods in American history unfold right before our very eyes, and we still see the benefits of that era today: the cell phones that we carry around, the flat-screen TVs that we watch, the computers that we use, the GPS systems that navigate us from place to place, medical technology, communicating technologies. So much innovation came out of that period of time.

We have an opportunity in America to harness that great American character of innovation just like President Kennedy did around an idea of energy independence and security. As my colleague from West Virginia just pointed out, the President stood in this Chamber and said that back in January. He advocated, in his words, for an all-of-the-above energy policy, one that includes all forms of energy, yet his policies continue to do the opposite, particularly where the coal industry is concerned.

What if we had a national energy policy that went something like this? Starting today, America is setting a goal to become energy independent and secure in America by the year 2020.

And we are going to harvest the vast oil and gas resources that we have? Experts say we have more of that resource now than any nation on the planet. We are going to expand our nuclear footprint. It is the cleanest form of energy on the planet. We're going to invest in and advocate for alternative forms of energy like wind and solar, biofuels and hydro, but we are going to let the market drive those innovations. And yes, we are going to continue to mine and use the vast coal resources we have because we have got enough coal in this country to fuel our energy needs for generations. It's the most affordable, most reliable form of energy that we know.

But we're not going to stop there. We're going to have a regulatory process that requires that regulatory agencies, like the EPA, become partners in progress with America's industries and businesses, rather than just throwing up barriers and saying ``no.'' If there's a reason to say no for public health or public safety reasons, then say no, but don't let no be the final answer. The American people have an expectation that their tax dollars are going to be used to move America forward, not to put on the brakes, kill jobs, ruin families, and make America less competitive in future generations.

I believe if we had that kind of energy vision we would once again see America's innovative wheels begin to turn. We would see young people lining up to get into technical programs and college programs to prepare them for careers in energy development, domestic energy development. We would see millions of jobs created. We would see industries crop up, and we would see a resurgence in manufacturing. We would see America go back to work.

And it would put in play the American Dream once again for millions of Americans, millions of middle class Americans, that have begun to think that perhaps the American Dream doesn't apply to them anymore. The American Dream is still alive and well in our country, and all we have to do, all we have to do is plug in to the type of American exceptionalism that put us on the Moon, and go after a real energy independence and security policy that harvests our coal, uses the natural resources that we have, and puts Americans back in charge of their own destiny.

I want to go into a little detail here on some of the comments that my colleagues from West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Dakota made just a few minutes ago. We know that coal-fired power plants like the Cardinal, Ohio, and Sammis plants, both of which are in my district, can be built with scrubbers in place so that coal can be used in a very environmentally safe way.

The President and his administration have started this war on coal that focuses on both the mining of coal and the use of coal in power plants. This week the EPA is expected to issue a rule on new power plants that will almost certainly ensure that under existing technology no new coal-fired power plant will be built in America. The new rule will require a technology called carbon sequestration and storage, and it's not commercially available nor commercially viable. My friend from West Virginia, David McKinley, has legislation that says that the EPA can't issue a rule that requires technology that isn't commercially viable. I hope we will consider that legislation in the House for two reasons. I think the American people have an expectation that people that make regulations that affect the economy, that affect the jobs, that affect the livelihood of Americans all over this country, that those rules are based on scientific fact and that they are technologically viable. That's not what we're seeing out of the EPA today.

And number two, I think it is absolutely irresponsible for the Federal Government to ban, essentially ban a form of energy that has fueled America's energy needs for generations and can for future generations. Remember what I said earlier: 800,000 jobs are produced either directly or indirectly across our country by the coal industry.

Before long, grid reliability will be in question, and rolling blackouts will be the norm again if we don't have coal power as part of our energy mix. I come from a background in information technology, and I can tell you that much of our technology is designed to operate on stable, reliable power, and blackouts and brownouts and dips in our power grid will put great stress on our technological resources. Don't take my word for it, ask the experts. Not to mention that energy costs are going to rise. People will lose their jobs and hardworking families will be forced to pay higher utility rates.

Sadly, this new rule on power plants is just the beginning. Next year, the EPA is expected to release a new rule regulating existing coal-fired power plants. Now if that rule is anything like the rule coming out this week, coal-fired power plants could go extinct in just a few years. We're already seeing the effects of the EPA's crusade against coal. In my district alone, one coal-fired power plant has already closed, leaving over 100 people without jobs. Furthermore, there are six other coal-fired power plants in my district, and if the EPA issues that unworkable rule next year, thousands in my district could be without jobs.

Now, if the President's war on coal simply stopped here, the coal industry and the people employed either directly or indirectly by the coal industry might be okay. However, the EPA rules are just the tip of the iceberg because the rest of the administration is also actively trying to shut down coal producers with a series of new rules. First, at the Department of the Interior, the administration has been trying to rewrite the 2008 stream buffer zone rule for nearly 5 years now. This rewriting of the rule has been a disaster from the beginning as the administration has wasted nearly $10 million and 5 years of our time on this environmentalists' dream. It might be a dream of theirs, but it is going to be a nightmare for the coal industry and the families across this country that are dependent upon it. We know that the preferred rule by the administration would cost thousands of jobs because the consultants they hired to do the analysis told us so, and it will lead to coal production being cut by nearly half in America. And yet, the administration appears unfazed and continues its effort to rewrite the rule.

That's why last year I introduced the Stop the War on Coal Act that would have stopped not only the rewrite of the stream buffer zone rule but also the EPA's misguided attempts to regulate coal-fired power plants. My colleague from Colorado, Doug Lamborn, and I, have reintroduced similar legislation this year, and I hope that the House will once again pass it and send a strong signal to the President to stop this rewrite.

Next, let's look at the Department of Labor. The President's Department of Labor is actively writing a rule dealing with coal dust that could potentially shut down totally underground mining. The rule is so unworkable and unreasonable that it has even been said that coal miners wearing full oxygen masks and tanks would not be in compliance with the rule. Think about that. Coal minors that would be breathing in pure oxygen would still be in violation of this new rule. And I'm not sure how a coal company can continue with a rule like that, and that's why we've been fighting against the implementation of this rule, called the coal dust rule, as well.

We and the American people should not be surprised by the President's actions nor the actions of his administration against the coal industry since he came into office. As our colleague from West Virginia pointed out, he told us back before he was first elected that his anti-coal policies would cause electricity prices to skyrocket and that it would bankrupt a utility company if it wanted to build a new coal-fired power plant in America. It might have taken him almost 5 years to deliver on those promises, but we're about to see him issue rules that will cause energy prices to skyrocket, make it impossible to build a coal-fired power plant, and kill thousands of jobs across the country.

However, as we have seen tonight, there is a strong will here in the House of Representatives to stand up and fight back against the President's policies. So here's the message: we will not roll over because the future of our economy and the livelihoods of our constituents, our children and grandchildren are on the line. We will continue to fight through the appropriations process. We will continue to work hard to educate the public on these destructive policies until the President backs down.

I want to share one final story before I yield back. I wasn't born into the coal production industry. I didn't grow up knowing a lot about coal production, but I sure learned a lot about coal consumption. I spoke to the Ohio association of rural electric co-ops about a month ago and I shared with them that as a small boy, I was the utilities manager at a rural utility co-op. Now they looked at me like some of you are looking at me. They cocked their head kind of sideways and said, how can a young boy be the director of a utility co-op?

You see, on that rural farm where we worked, we had no indoor plumbing, and my grandmother heated and cooked on a big, black, round potbellied stove. My job as a young boy before I went to bed each night was to make sure that the coal bucket was full on the back porch so when my granddad got up at 4:30 in the morning to fire up that stove so grandmother could get up and start breakfast, it was there. It was also my job to bring in a cistern of water from the outside pump so she didn't have to go outside and get it.

So in a very real sense, I was the utilities manager for that farm. I provided the fuel and ensured that the fuel was there to heat and cook, and provided the water.

Folks, that's the character that America was built on. That's what hardworking people along Appalachia, Ohio remember. They dreamed of a future for their children and their grandchildren because they lived that kind of character. They still live it today.

I want to thank my colleagues for coming tonight and joining me in this effort to stop the administration's war on the coal industry.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Source