January 23, 2021 - Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) addressed virtually the WV Mining Symposium presented by the West Virginia Coal Association (WVCA) on January 12, 2021 in Charleston, WV. The following is an extract from her address:

Our coal is in our skyscrapers, our roads, our railways, and soon the rockets that we are sending out. Who knows where we're going to be in the 21st Century. The thermal coal that you mine has the power to lift struggling nations out of poverty. The fast growing, emerging countries of Asia, Africa, and South America are turning to clean coal to provide the affordable and reliable energy that they need to lift their people up as we've been able to do. Access to energy is the greatest tool available to eliminate poverty around the world. Our resources taken from the ground that we stand on and it gives ten-fold more for progress for the people who are the most in need. In 2019, about 93 million short tons of U.S. coal were exported to 50 countries being shipped to places like India, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, South Korea. West Virginia met and thermal coal help these countries build their infrastructure and power their homes and businesses.

Carol Miller

I recently founded the Congressional Energy Export Caucus. It's a bipartisan caucus with the goal to increase exporting our American energy around the world to give our allies and our trade partners both the resources and the technologies to power their countries and help create jobs here at home as well. It will also continue to build important relationships with our allies. The world is a very small place and we have to look and see what other countries are doing. Our Congressional Energy Export Caucus will help bring responsible energy with sustainable, efficient, and affordable solutions to support American energy leadership throughout the world. The caucus will also help strengthen our national security at home, as well as ensuring our allies will have access to safe and affordable energy. Energy security is national security. Trade and foreign investment are the most important steps that we can take toward revitalizing our economy. This will bring new revenue streams and lead to increase job creation and innovation. It's crucial that West Virginia coal is there to meet the demand.

In the coming months, I hope to be able to finally deliver a long-promised package that unfortunately has been held up because of very partisan politics. With a little luck this coming year, we will actually have an infrastructure investment in our country, and I will be there just as I have been for the last two years letting everybody know that West Virginia coal needs to happen. Metallurgical coal is the building block to paving new roads, building new bridges, running faster trains, putting strong, lighter airplanes in the air, as well as constructing huge buildings. Met coal is the very foundation of the carbon fiber that puts rockets into space and then safely returns them home. For the first time in human history, we're able to do that thanks for the resources and innovation that is coming from our industry. We have a very large aerospace industry in West Virginia and the interconnected and interdependent role of coal means that we are not an isolated industry. Coal goes into the steel for the pipelines used to transport the natural gas, and we must continue to push for more energy pipelines that will create more jobs and transport our natural resources as well as boosting our economy. The telecommunications infrastructure and the health systems have been so very crucial during the time of this COVID epidemic that we've had for our very survival in the last few months and at the core of this is the energy produced from West Virginia coal. So many other people have not heard this and it's time that we stand up and educate them so that they really understand that one strong voice of coal will keep our economies and our societies upright and moving.

I'm on the Climate Crisis Committee. We hear all the time we have a crisis. In my opinion our climate has always been changing from the time our Earth was created. But every day I fight on the Climate Crisis Committee when it has been meeting to let them know that, especially on the West Coast, they wouldn't have any energy if they didn't export it or import it in, and West Virginia is very willing to export to them any energy we have.

The sad truth is that although we've taken tremendous steps to restore our economy against the war on coal, we are entering into the Biden Administration and unfortunately, their plans are for the Green New Deal or the Green New Disaster, depending upon where you look at it. So, we have to stand up and remind our state, our nation and the world just what it is that the coal industry does to ensure global human prosperity. I have been in the mines myself, more than once, and I'll make every effort to help my colleagues understand exactly what coal does for us.

We need to further embrace our natural resources and find realistic, long-term sustainable and responsible solutions to allow coal to thrive in the post-pandemic world. The newly approved Affordable Clean Energy Rule is crucial to fighting back against the misguided policies that will continue to cripple the industry. The future is clean, affordable, and effective coal mining. We must show the world that innovation, not regulation, is the key to success in our communities. We must continue to innovate and utilize the scientific breakthroughs that are developing in carbon capture in order to hit the near zero emissions. But we need to make sure that it happens on our terms to support a coal future and not undermine it. We need to increase investment in carbon fiber and the role that carbon from our coal will play in the future that until recently might have seemed more like a science fiction movie than a science fact. With the resources that we have at our fingertips, the possibilities are endless for the future of carbon and mining.

Coal is at the forefront as the United States seeks to become a leader in the production of rare earth minerals. There are many uses for coal that were previously unusable mining byproducts that we are still discovering by creating a clean and safe mineral rich fertilizer for crops. Another word that comes to mind is graphite. I am not a scientist but it's out there. There's so much possibility, and we just have to be smarter and figure out how we can keep promoting it. Imagine West Virginia coal playing a critical role in bringing people to Mars because of the lightweight resilient materials that we need to make it, could make it a reality.

International market will require affordable, safe, and clean solutions. When the world needs coal, they can and will know that West Virginia is here to provide it. It's absolutely critical that you have the support and the resources that you need to effectively reach this goal and I am committed to securing them for you. God bless you all for what you do and for who you are. Let's keep West Virginia the place we know she can be, raising our families, going into work every day, having a beautiful mountainous state with gorgeous streams to enjoy.