Opinion by Emily Arthun

November 8, 2024 - Coal is a critical resource. The dismissal of coal in the United States is a tragedy motivated by greed disguised as a caring for the health and human wellbeing of all.

To preserve our nation’s access to affordable and reliable energy, and the building and rebuilding of much-needed infrastructure, we must focus on a political agenda that prioritizes common-sense regulatory reforms, investments in coal technologies, grid reliability, and the protection of American jobs. The technological requirements of our data-driven world require this pathway forward.

Coal is not just a resource of the past; it is a crucial part of America’s future, and policymakers must ensure it remains a key component of our nation’s natural-resource portfolio.

America’s natural-resource policy in the future must include four key components: one, protecting the nation’s coal supply chain; two ensuring safe and accessible transportation for the nation’s coal production; three, focusing on the affordability and reliability of the nation’s electricity grid; and four, promoting and developing the nation’s coal workforce.

Protecting the nation’s coal-supply chain requires supporting permitting reform to make it easier to obtain permits and more difficult for the federal government to revoke existing permits.

Since the opening salvos of the Beyond Coal Campaign, government agencies not only began making it more difficult to get a mining permit but also began revoking long-standing permits such as the Arch Coal Spruce Mine in West Virginia. This struggle to get and keep permits has had a chilling effect on investments in new coal operations.

A related component is the need to reverse the current moratorium imposed by the administration of President Joe Biden on leasing federal land for coal mining. The entire federal mining program needs to be modernized to better reflect the current coal industry, as opposed to remaining focused on a mining industry that hasn’t existed since the 1950s. This could be accomplished by reining in the federal regulatory agencies and restoring the federal/state power balance intended by Congress.

It is vital that we protect and improve the transportation system for coal, including rail access, port facilities, river transport facilities, and roadways. Investing in our country’s transportation systems promises to improve our economic competitiveness by reducing the cost of coal delivery, and it promises to keep U.S. coal competitive in domestic and international markets. It should be a priority that coal be able to reach international markets more efficiently and at lower costs. This focus would create jobs in construction, engineering, and operations and would benefit local economies.

Coal ensures American grid reliability; coal plants continue to provide a significant portion of the nation's base-load electricity. Unlike some renewable sources, which can be intermittent, coal-fired plants are designed to operate continuously, making them reliable contributors to the grid during periods of high electricity demand such as extreme weather events. Coal plants maintain inventories of fuel on-site, allowing them to operate for extended periods without needing constant resupply. This fuel inventory makes them more resilient to supply-chain disruptions that can affect natural-gas or renewable-energy sources.

A reliable grid means consistent electricity prices. Disruptions in power can cause price spikes that affect industries and consumers alike. Coal plants, by offering predictable, continuous power, contribute to price stability, which is key to maintaining consumer confidence and investor interest in the power sector. Coal's reliability helps instill confidence in the overall energy system's ability to meet future demands.

A strong energy policy should promote and expand America’s coal supply chain workforce through the support of legislation to improve and expand technical and trade-skill programs and workforce development. America’s technical and trade-skill education system has been ignored for far too long. Ignoring this educational system has created a major shortage of people with trade skills, such as welders, mechanics, and electricians.

It is time that the war on coal, on industrial manufacturing, and on those jobs that form the core of any nation’s economy comes to an end.

If we truly want to break free of the inflationary spiral we are in — and if we truly want to get back to economic growth, rebuild our economic strength, provide reliable and affordable energy that will meet the needs of a growing economy, and make our nation great again — we must support coal.

Emily Arthun is president and CEO of the American Coal Council (americancoalcouncil.org), a nonprofit association in Washington, D.C. She wrote this exclusively for the News Tribune.

Emily Arthun