EPA administrator touts industry regulatory changes as part of event at Harvey Mine portal
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt receives a hard hat from the miners at Harvey Mine during a “Back-to-Basics” agenda discussion Thursday afternoon.
Miner Shane Lispomb of Morgantown, W.Va., waits for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to speak at Harvey Mine in Sycamore Thursday.
SYCAMORE – It would have been unfathomable just a few months ago for Consol Energy workers to see an Environmental Protection Agency official standing inside one of their mines offering words of encouragement.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt did just that Thursday afternoon, speaking to a few dozen miners at the Harvey Mine portal near Sycamore before donning a miner’s hard hat and venturing underground for a tour of the facility deep below the Greene County landscape.
“The war on coal is over,” Pruitt said to rousing applause. “It’s done.”
Pruitt’s appearance was part of the rollout of the EPA’s “Back-to-Basics” agenda he said will refocus the priorities of the agency and push to return regulatory oversight to the states. Pruitt touted President Trump’s recent executive orders directing the EPA to review the Clean Power Plan and remove regulations energy advocates say have decimated the coal industry.
“The past administration said we had to choose between the environment and job growth,” Pruitt said. “This administration says the opposite. We can achieve both and we will.”
That was welcome news for CNX Coal Resources Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Brock, who presented Pruitt with a miner’s hardhat with his name on the side.
“It’s easy to be optimistic now,” Brock said. “All of us who mine coal, we won’t apologize for what we do.”
He said they have weathered stricter regulations in recent years that have been burdensome.
“We’ve been through a rough time. We’re ready for a new chapter in mining,” Brock said. “There’s always going to be a need for coal in the generation mix.”
Kevin Carson, a Bentleyville resident and shift supervisor for Consol’s Bailey Mine preparation plant nearby, said Pruitt’s visit was encouraging and he was hopeful it would lead to regulatory changes that have stifled the industry in recent years.
“That’s huge to see someone like him come to a (mining) site,” Carson said. “For them to come to us and want to work with us instead of just preach, it goes a long way.”
Harvey Mine Foreman Jamie Haines of Washington has worked in the coal industry for more than two decades, but never has seen such a high-ranking federal official visit one of his facilities.
“It’s very encouraging,” Haines said.
Still, even with fewer environmental regulations, the coal industry faces stiff competition from the natural gas industry. Two natural gas-fired power plants are proposed to be built in Greene County, including one at the site of the decommissioned Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station near Masontown that generated electricity by using coal.
Haines thinks both coal and natural gas will “survive together” going forward.
“We still need that (coal) base for supplying power,” he said.
Pruitt also spent time in a private roundtable discussion with several miners and various organizations advocating coal. Amy Graham, the EPA’s deputy associate administrator for public engagement, said the visit was to describe to the miners the next steps for the agency. She said there is regulatory duplication between the federal government and states that can be streamlined to relieve the burden on the energy industry.
“States know what’s best for their environmental and their economy,” Graham said.
A recurring theme during the meeting was the Obama administration’s environmental regulations to combat climate change that the coal industry claimed stifled production and job growth.
“They didn’t listen to their concerns,” she said of the previous administration.
But Pruitt’s visit to a mine as the EPA’s leader also generated outrage for area environmental groups.
PennFuture, a statewide organization touting environmental issues, blasted Pruitt’s visit, claiming he is working to dismantle the agency he leads.
”Pruitt is undermining our last chance to avoid climate disruption,” PennFuture President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Schweiger said. “We need to push back on this reckless and cynical action that will not even help coal because cheap gas is killing coal in the energy market, and the smart miners know it.”
As Pruitt was descending into the mine, the Center for Coalfield Justice held a press conference at its Washington office to push back on the Trump administration’s agenda.
“If Administrator Pruitt cares about the coalfields, he would help rebuild our local economy for the long term, as programs in the Clean Power Plan would have done,” Coalfield Justice Executive Director Veronica Coptis said. “Interfering with pending rules and removing existing standards will not save the coal industry and will only limit resources for worker retraining and economic diversity, all while killing our streams and degrading the places our families enjoy,”
Sharon Pillar, a consultant for Environmental Entrepreneurs, noted that clean energy jobs far outstrip mining jobs, with 3 million nationally and 70,000 in Pennsylvania.
“When we hear Scott Pruitt say he wants to get the Environmental Protection Agency ‘back to basics,’ we know he means he wants to send the EPA back to the bad old days before the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act,” said Randy Francisco, an organizer for Sierra Club Beyond Coal, adding that Pruitt’s remarks were made at a mine that was fined $3 million for Clean Water Act violations last year.
Business editor Michael Bradwell contributed to this report.