Joe Manchin

I believe that it inhibits job growth and it sometimes can stymie our economic development.

The coal industry's latest comment on the recent alarming birth defects research... is that the research did not take into account that those of us living in mountaintop removal communities are a bunch of inbreeds.

I have personally witnessed the social and economic disruptions that occur when unelected bureaucrats make arbitrary decisions.

It would be shameful and woefully incompetent if a United States Congressional committee would take action based upon misleading and false coal industry information.

this stream protection rule could result in 29,000 hard working American coal miners losing their jobs and wiping out $650 million in wages.

It is time for this administration to get off the backs of West Virginia's job creators by using common sense and not ideology.

The thousands of coal miners in West Virginia, Appalachia and across this nation desperately need your help.

Let me just say that under this Administration it's been very onerous as far as trying to get a level playing field or a balance.

West Virginia's coal miners, the bravest workers in world, should be confident about their future, enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

This proposal from OSM is but one part of an 'open war' on American coal being waged by bureaucrats in Washington, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Mountaintop removal has been in full stride now for about 15 to 20 years and already we are witnessing health effects of human exposure to the fallout of this insane method of mining, and it is insane.

Mountaineers will never be free until this madness ends. Reinstate the stream buffer zone rule to at least the Regan Era Rule and (for the first time in history) enforce it to protect American lives from this criminal industry.

I think there's a better way that we could save some of those plants, giving dependable, reliable and affordable energy.

The outcome of this hearing should not be one that supports those who are benefitting from an endeavor that is killing people in mountain communities.

OSM would drastically reduce coal production in West Virginia and across the nation by applying new standards that have no basis in the law.

Families suffered and disintegrated. . .substance abuse and divorces skyrocketed.

I call on you to restore balance in the federal government--to reign in the out-of-control EPA and OSM.

The economy would go to 'you-know-what' in a handbasket and we'd be in serious trouble.

Unless restrained by Congress, OSM will destroy the economies of states that produce coal and propel thousands of coal miners on the jobless roles.

When these agencies or legislators, for that matter, become ill-influenced by those they oversee... the people are not well served.

As we know, the West Virginia coal mining industry itself employs over 50,000 people with some incomes reaching $80,000 a year.

Congress must act to restrain the OSM and the EPA.

We seek not a subsidy or handout. We just need the permission to work.

The results were devastating. Some 400 members of Local Union 2935 were out of a job.

I am deeply concerned about the direction federal agencies, including the EPA and the OSM, have recently taken in the regulation of the coal industry.