By Steven Allen Adams
For The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Charleston – U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito told leaders of the coal industry in West Virginia that real work towards permitting reform could make it out of Congress before the end of the year.
Capito, R-W.Va., addressed attendees on the final day of the West Virginia Coal Association’s Annual Mining Symposium and Coal Show at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Capito, fourth in the leadership of the U.S. Senate’s Republican caucus and chairwoman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said Wednesday that permitting reform for energy projects remains a major priority for her and other members of Congress.
“The other thing I’ve been working day and night on, and I hope I’m very successful because I think it’ll be great for coal and coal mining and really all energy development, is permitting reform,” Capito said.
“You all know what a nightmare permitting is at the federal level,” she continued. “It’s just provision upon provision. It’s expensive. It stalls out projects, people abandon projects, or they don’t even invest in projects because they don’t have the certainty that it’s going to happen.”
Capito said that a rare convergence of bipartisan interest in both the Senate and House of Representatives is being driven by a national “energy hunger” and a lack of transmission infrastructure.
“All of a sudden, we’ve got the Democrats and the Republicans sitting at the table together for one thing, permitting reform,” Capito said. “We have a lack of transmission, which is a problem all around the country. We have a great appetite for transmission and electric power.”
Reforms being looked at include streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act process; limiting the ability of courts to indefinitely stall permitted projects; reforming provisions within the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act that are viewed as obstructions to development; and addressing issues that upend projects, such as the discovery of historic artifacts.
“I think we can do it in the next three months,” Capito said. “It may wait to the end of the year. I hope not. It’s going to get very political here … if it’s not already.”
The Annual Mining Symposium began Tuesday, featuring U.S. Sen. Jim Justice and 2nd District Congressman Riley Moore.
“Great to join industry leaders today at the West Virginia Coal Association’s Annual Mining Symposium in Charleston – where the future of American energy is being shaped,” said Moore, R-W.Va., in a social media post Tuesday. “Coal built West Virginia and still powers our nation. I’m proud to stand with our miners, support a strategic coal reserve and fight to unleash American energy dominance.”
“West Virginia is a coal state through and through, and I could not be more proud of our hardworking energy producers,” said Justice, R-W.Va., in a statement Tuesday.
Justice is the owner of multiple coal mining companies that have faced scrutiny over the years for unpaid loans, tax debts, lawsuits by vendors and outstanding federal mine penalties.
“Attending the West Virginia Mining Symposium … gave me the opportunity to hear directly from the men and women who keep this industry running, and to better understand just how I can keep fighting for West Virginia coal jobs and our miners in Washington,” Justice said. “These folks work their tails off and power our country every single day, and I’ll always have their backs.”
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