The bills - known as the “Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012” - cleared the House 233 votes to 175. Although likely to be vetoed by the president, they draw further attention to the political weight of the coal industry in the election year.
Coal mining swing states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and especially Ohio have been the targets of intense campaigning from Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney as the issue of coal industry cutbacks and the responsibility of federal energy policy come into laser focus.
House passage of the coal bill package coincides with a recent Obama advertisement campaign running exclusively in eastern and southern Ohio which paints an anti-coal Romney as “not one of us”
The news also follows staggering reports that Alpha Natural Resources will axe 1200 employees at eight closing mines and that nation as a whole losing 200 coal-fired power stations over the next five years.
“Without the passage of the Stop the War on Coal Act, those job losses and thousands of others will become reality for hardworking coal miners and their families across the country as a record number of coal plants will be forced to close over the coming years,” House natural resources committee chairman Doc Hastings said.
Ohio representative Bill Johnson said the bills were “commonsense legislation”
“Protecting America’s coal industry and the jobs that go with it is part of the a true ‘all of the above’ approach to energy production that creates jobs, lowers energy prices, and takes America one step closer to energy independence,” he said.
Although unlikely to reach the Senate before 2013, the act would prevent the issue of regulations damaging to the coal industry before the end of the year.
It would also establish a committee to review regulations, limit federal influence on state environmental permitting, and transfer determination of various pollution standards to the state level.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity said the current EPA policy threatened more than 1.5 million jobs.
“It’s disappointing that President Obama threatened to veto this critical legislation which would provide for more balanced regulations and ensure a future for coal,” ACCCE president and chief executive Mike Duncan said.
“Communities around the country are grateful for the bipartisan leadership shown by the House of Representatives on this issue.”
Massachusetts congressman Ed Markey called the bills a “polluterpalooza” which let coal companies “off the hook to safely dispose and store the coal ash ... and dump mining waste in streams and rivers.”
“House Republicans appear to be in an intellectual fog when it comes to energy policy. I guess that’s why they can’t see the invisible hand of the free market moving America to clean energy and natural gas,” Markey said.
“Republicans do favors for coal and oil, even though their prices are going up and jobs are going away. Then they attack and ignore clean energy and natural gas, even though their prices are going down and the jobs they create are adding up.”
In a recent interview with ILN, Alpha spokeswoman Samantha Davison said the long-term market for thermal coal had fundamentally changed as a result of both EPA regulations and abundant supply of domestic natural gas.
“We don’t see natural gas competition going away and we see regulatory pressure from the EPA increasing on coal-fired power generation,” she said.
