November 11, 2004

Coal workshop addresses environmental regulations

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- New federal environmental regulations could specifically affect the West Virginia coal industry, speakers at a state energy workshop said Wednesday.

The Interstate Air Quality Rule proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not include mandatory provisions for mercury reductions, said Calvin Kent, a former administrator of the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy.

"That of course disadvantages us in Central Appalachia since it is considerably easier to clean mercury out of our coal than it is from western coal,'' said Kent, now with the Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University.

"So as this process moves forward it would behoove us to see if we can't get some restrictions placed back into the rule on mercury,'' he said at the conference organized by the West Virginia Energy Roadmap Workshop series.

Kent added that the coal industry in West Virginia has yet to determine the effects of a federal judge's ruling in July that barred a streamlined permitting process for use of valley fills for disposing mining waste.

"We estimate it can cut production at best by 10 million tons a year, and more likely by 40 million tons a year if it is fully implemented,'' Kent said.

Don Blankenship, chairman and chief executive officer of Massey Energy Co., said environmentalists' focus on mercury pollution is misguided because of the small amount found in the United States compared with the rest of the world.

Blankenship said "billions of dollars of taxpayer money is spent to control just 48 tons'' of mercury domestically, while thousands of tons of mercury go untreated world wide.

Environmental regulations to require pollution controls at power plants could also affect the state's coal business, Blankenship said. Cleaner-burning Central Appalachian does not always require capital-intensive scrubbers at power plants.

"We do have a great deal of fear, or should have a great deal of caution that when these scrubbers hit in 2008 ... that West Virginia could take a hit,'' Blankenship said. "It's very important that the West Virginia delegation (to Congress) understand how they need to focus on environmental requirements from other coal regions and ours, otherwise we'll end up at a disadvantage.

"We're already disadvantaged from a cost viewpoint, we can't afford to be disadvantaged more than we are from the environmental or regulatory side,'' he said.

Several dozen protesters gathered outside the conference, holding up signs decrying mountaintop removal mining and Blankenship's role in promoting Republican Brent Benjamin's ultimately successful state Supreme Court bid over incumbent Democrat Warren McGraw.

"I'm proud to say that I spent $3.5 million to change the insurance costs of the citizens of West Virginia,'' Blankenship during his presentation.

Rita Bajura, director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy, said several coal gasification experiments are being conducted around the country. They involve FutureGen power plant technology, which is expected to eliminate carbon emissions by capturing the byproduct in the plant and pumping it underground.

The new plants are also expected to produce a new source of clean-burning hydrogen that could become a replacement for gasoline.

Mark Dempsey, a vice president of American Electric Power Co., said the company plans to build a 1,000 megawatt coal gasification plant in one of the seven states it serves by 2010.

Several West Virginia sites are in the running for the plant's construction, which requires access to river and rail, he said.

AEP expects to announce where the plant will be built in June.

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On the Net:

West Virginia Energy Roadmap Workshops: http://www.wvenergyroadmapworkshops.org