On the recordJune 20, 2012
in the shadow of one seemingly narrow Senate vote, that being the Inhofe resolution of disapproval of the EPA's rule on mercury and air toxins, I rise to talk about West Virginia, about our people, our way of life, our health, our State's economic opportunity, and about our future. Coal has played an enormous part in our past and can play an enormous part in our future, but it will only happen if we face reality. This is a critical and a very contentious time in the Mountain State. The dialogue on coal, its impacts, and the Federal Government's role has reached a stunningly fevered pitch. Carefully orchestrated messages that strike fear into the hearts of West Virginians and feed uncertainty about coal's future are the subject of millions of dollars of paid television ads, billboards, breakroom bulletin boards, public meetings, letters, and lobbying campaigns. A daily onslaught declares that coal is under siege from harmful outside sources, and that the future of the State is bleak unless we somehow turn back the clock, ignore the present, and block the future. West Virginians understandably worry that a way of life and the dignity of a job is at stake. Change and uncertainty in the coal industry is unsettling and nothing new. But it is unsettling.…
