West Virginia will have a say in future energy policy if a visit today from members of the Senate is any indication.
Sen. Joe Manchin hosted future Senate energy committee leaders at coal and wind electricity generation facilities in Grant County at the beginning of a two-day tour to promote a national energy policy that relies on all forms of energy.
Manchin escorted colleagues Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on a tour of Dominion's Mount Storm coal-fired power plant and the adjacent NedPower wind plant that is jointly owned by Dominion and Shell Wind Energy, a site chosen to symbolically represent the idea of "all of the above."
The lack of a comprehensive national energy policy has left policymakers to bicker over incentives for various fuels and regulations that restrict or expand the use of a given fuel.
Regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on coal mining and emissions from coal-fired power plants have left coal-state legislators crying foul. Increasing EPA attention to the environmental effects of natural gas extraction have led to accusations that Obama is not pursuing the popularly named "all of the above" energy strategy.
Manchin, earlier as West Virginia governor and as senator since 2010, has expressed strong disapproval of the Obama EPA.
His invitation to Murkowski and Wyden is based on the fact that they are the ranking Republic and Democratic members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Whatever happens in the November election, one of them will chair the committee.
Although the three senators scheduled time for the media, their tour ran late and it turned out to be too brief for much interaction.
Manchin said the nation needs coal as part of a diverse energy portfolio. He added what seemed to be a suggestion to the EPA that it doesn't understand that coal is clean enough already.
"I think that basically the EPA has accelerated trying to write a certain baseload off without ever knowing what we do," he said.
Murkowski said, "I think probably the strongest impression that I will take from this part of the tour is a recognition that, as we focus on how we build out our renewable energy sources, I think we've got to be pragmatic and realistic about what it is they can accomplish," referring to the challenge of integrating a high percentage of intermittent wind and solar resources into the grid.
She referred to the environmental controls that have removed 95 percent and more of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from the Mount Storm plant's emissions, and implied that coming regulations on mercury and air toxics are not needed when she said, "We all want cleaner energy sources, but we all have to recognize that it can't be priced out of the market."
Those regulations, which the agency has said will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year and provide health benefits of $3 to $9 for every dollar spent, will be subject to an up or down vote in the Senate next Wednesday. Manchin supports the resolution that would stop them.
Wyden reflected frustration with lack of an energy policy, saying the country wants a win-win energy plan.
"We want to produce it and we want to protect our treasures — our land, air and water," he said. "And if we don't work together, we get a lose-lose: We don't produce energy and we don't protect our treasures. The only people who seem to do well are the people who get involved in litigation. The three of us want something very different."
The senators were headed next by helicopter to the Mountain Laurel mine complex in Logan County.
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