Published: August 24, 2008 12:33 am      

Coal must be significant part of realistic U.S. energy policy

It seems the perfect environment to pick sides and fight.

Energy prices, though they have receded some in recent weeks, spiked to push gasoline over $4 a gallon during much of the summer. There is legitimate concern about what heating costs will do to family budgets this winter. Of course, higher energy costs are felt throughout the general economy, as well.

Throw in the charged atmosphere of a presidential election year in the United States.

We’ve all heard the slogans.

• Increase domestic drilling, including off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in Alaska.

• The time is right to get serious about plentiful oil shale in the West.

• Let’s get moving on wind and solar power.

• Do everything possible to conserve, such as using mass transit, keeping you car engine tuned, checking the pressure in your tires, slowing down and consolidating your trips.

• Push for higher fuel-mileage standards.

• Unleash technology to develop alternative, non-fossil fuels and make them marketable.

• Don’t forget the potential of nuclear energy.

All sound ideas if they could somehow be tied together in a comprehensive energy package, something the country’s leaders have failed miserably to accomplish for more than 30 years.

Short-term political gains from battles over specifics have to end if the country is going to have sufficient, reasonably priced energy supplied to be poised for sustainable growth.

The United States must look at its energy future realistically, and that includes taking advantage of one of its most abundant resources and one in which West Virginia is rich — coal.

West Virginia, as The Associated Press reported last week, is the second-largest producer of coal in the United States. The industry plays a huge role in the state’s economy, employing about 20,000 miners along with tens of thousands of workers in related fields.

A nonpartisan think tank affiliated with the statewide nonprofit A Vision Shared issued its first-ever policy report on coal last week. It showed that coal is the largest part of the nation’s energy profile — now providing roughly 52 percent of the nation’s energy — and will retain its importance.

Those who believe what they label “dirty coal” can be quickly phased out of the nation’s energy aren’t look at the matter realistically.

“I know there are many people who say, ‘Let’s stop using coal completely,’ but those aren’t the facts of life,” said Gov. Joe Manchin, who spoke at a conference where the report was released by the group Imagine West Virginia.

“It’s so very encouraging to hear an approach to an energy policy that recognizes the central importance of coal,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

Allan Tweddle, a member of the state Public Energy Authority, said the medium-range economic picture for coal is complicated, citing estimates that so-called clean coal technology may cause the price of coal to rise and the move of some countries such as Canada and Germany away from coal.

“The cost of wind power and solar power is coming down, constantly,” he said.

There is no question that alternative energy will be part of he nation’s future. As an example in this state, the environmental group Coal River Mountain Watch has an initiative that seeks to encourage Massey Energy to stop plans to create a mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia.

The group says the ridges would be put to greater use if they were developed as a wind farm than if they were mined for coal.

“I don’t want to have a debate on whether windmills are better than coal or whether coal is better than windmills,” Raney said. “We need them all.”

That’s the approach the country needs to take.