By Fred Pace

February 13, 2019 - Two representatives from Huntington, West Virginia shared with Congress Tuesday their views about climate change and West Virginia's role in the transition happening with energy resources.

Investing in the economic revitalization of the communities that have been extraction-based must be front and center in shaping policy addressing climate change, according to Coalfield Development founder Brandon Dennison.

Brandon Dennison

The other speaker from the Tri-State, Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bill Bissett stressed the continuing key role that West Virginia and its energy resources can play in the country's future.

Bill Bissett

Dennison and Bissett were among several people providing testimony to the Energy & Mineral Resources Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C.

The topic of the hearing was "Climate Change: Preparing for the Energy Transition." The subcommittee held the forum to discuss issues regarding climate change and hear from those communities most affected as the country moves away from fossil fuels.

"The transition away from coal, which is already happening by the way, isn't just creating an economic crisis, it's a social crisis directly related to the opioid epidemic, and it's an environmental crisis leaving massive scars on our landscape that have to be dealt with," Dennison said during his testimony. "The fact that coal isn't coming back doesn't mean Appalachia has no future. The void left by coal's collapse is making room for new entrepreneurial spurts to grow up."

Dennison said Appalachia can be a vital contributor in the fight against climate change.

"With smart federal policy and investment, our country can accelerate these new spurts in entrepreneurship," he said.

Dennison said if federal policymakers don't pay attention to the economic hurt in the extraction communities and don't invest in solutions that show that there is a viable path forward, it will only deepen the division in the country.

"We in Appalachia need to know we are valued and the country needs to know that we have more to offer than just coal," he said.

Dennison said he often hears policymakers say that coal miners and others in extraction communities just need to be retrained.

"There are thousands of laid off miners who have participated in federal training programs and those got a new certificate, but it doesn't matter because the businesses have left to take that certificate and get employed," he said. "We have to create new businesses at the same time we are training new employees to staff those businesses and have a modern workforce."

Bissett said in his testimony that West Virginia has gone from catastrophic job losses and declining state revenues to job growth and is now stable and growing due to a rebirth of both coal and natural gas production.

"With coal, we continue to be concerned with our nation's inability to build new coal-fired power plants," he said. "Until this fact changes, the domestic market for steam coal, coal used to create electricity, will continue to decrease as coal plants are retired. However, the story that is not often told is that in the southern coalfields of West Virginia, the economy is doing well due to metallurgical (met) coal, or coal that makes steel. This coal, which sells at a higher price and burns much hotter, is in great demand both in the United States and around the world."

Bissett said as Americans discuss not only new infrastructure, but also the maintenance of roads, bridges and other large steel structures, large amounts of steel will be needed.

"I would hope we would use steel made in the United States, and to make that steel I would want us to use met coal from West Virginia," he said.

Bissett said while he wanted to bring some good news about West Virginia's economy, it comes with a caveat.

"As I talk to business leaders and job providers back home, many of them are thrilled to see this uptick, but they also find it fragile," he said. "In West Virginia, in the heart of Appalachia, we worry that, as a global issue like climate change is addressed, it will damage the economy of West Virginia far greater than any other state. We are all too familiar with what a downturn in coal production does to our region."

Bissett said at a time when the country and the world needs steel and electricity, met and steam coal production provides high-paying jobs, not just for coal miners, but engineers, lawyers, accountants, machinery workers and numerous other service jobs that are dependent on the mining of coal for existence.

"While we have withstood the last downturn, we worry that actions here in Washington will damage West Virginia's rebounding economy, job growth and long-term economic development," he said.

Bissett said that he, and many other West Virginians, believes that the country can produce coal and natural gas, while also creating new economic opportunities.

"We simply do not have to sacrifice one industry to create new opportunities," he said.

Bissett said that every form of energy production has an economic and environmental cost to it.

"I think everyone in this room and on this panel can agree that no one wants to create poverty and hopelessness by their actions," he said. "As many of us Appalachians try to tell our story beyond our borders, we worry about the future of our region and how impediments to our ability to produce natural resources will return us to what was a very dark time in my home state and Appalachia. As climate change is a global issue, we must consider its impact in a global way, and with a global solution. Sacrificing the economic future of West Virginia and Appalachia will have little impact on global man-made carbon, but you will succeed in creating more poverty, more hopelessness and an uncertain future for those of us lucky enough to call West Virginia home."