Published: October 21, 2009 06:53 am      

Manchin seeks Obama’s ear on coal, cap-and-trade

CHARLESTON — The governor of the country’s second-largest coal-producing state is angling for a sit-down with President Barack Obama over his administration’s stance on climate change and its pursuit of cap-and-trade legislation.

Gov. Joe Manchin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that West Virginia has a role to play as the nation considers cutting climate-affecting energy sources.

Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, and coal releases that gas when burned. The White House wishes to curb carbon emissions and reduce the use of fossil-derived fuel, though that goal also dovetails with the push to replace foreign oil as a key energy source.

While less than a fourth of the energy consumed in the U.S. last year came from coal, it accounted for just over half the country’s electric power. Manchin hopes that will help him persuade the president that investing in the right technology can allow the U.S. to continue to rely on coal, but more cleanly.

“Coal is going to be our primary provider of electricity for the next 30 years. That’s the practical reality,” Manchin told AP. “West Virginia is very much willing to be involved and play a responsible role.”

But the governor also said his desire to meet is unrelated to his recent frustrations with Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Manchin and other elected officials lashed out last week when the EPA announced plans to revoke a previously issued permit for a West Virginia surface mine. Agency officials cited “very serious concerns” about possible Clean Water Act violation by what would be Appalachia’s largest authorized mountaintop removal operation.

While upset with the regulators, Manchin said that doesn’t have to be a topic of any White House meeting. He instead wants to revisit the sort of talks the two had when Obama was in the U.S. Senate.

Manchin said they met when Obama helped raise funds for the re-election campaign of Sen. Robert C. Byrd during a September 2006 visit to West Virginia. They have since corresponded on such topics as the prospects of converting coal into a liquid fuel, the governor said.

“I know he understands the need for balance, because we’ve spoken before,” Manchin said. “I want to get back into that room and talk to him. If he’s changed his mind, he’ll let me know.”

A White House spokesperson said Tuesday that officials there have received the governor’s request for a meeting. Administration officials have also said that the president includes coal in national energy policy, and supports efforts to capture and store the carbon it produces. They cite his proposed investments in such “clean coal” technologies that they total at more than $4 billion.

Senate Democrats unveiled legislation earlier this month that would set limits on the amount of heat-trapping gases from large industrial sources. The House narrowly passed a bill on the topic in late June.

The proposals would provide annual pollution allowances that power plants, refineries, factories and the like could use or trade among themselves if they continue to burn coal. But the accompanying caps aim to steer them toward cleaner alternatives.

West Virginia produced more than 165 million tons of coal last year, ranking it behind only Wyoming. Its industry has rallied against the cap-and-trade and other Obama policies, while environmental activists have stepped up their efforts to discourage mountaintop removal mining.

A form of surface mining, this method blasts apart ridge tops to expose coal seams and then dumps the resulting debris into valleys. Various kinds of surface mines operate in 21 of West Virginia’s 55 counties, and together provided about 44 percent of the coal it produced last year.

Several dozen activists visited Manchin in the Capitol Monday, urging him to stop a pending mountaintop removal project and advocating a windmill farm as an alternative. Seven protesters were arrested and later released after staging a sit-in at the governor’s reception room.

Environmentalists also question whether clean coal technology can effectively reduce carbon emissions, without creating additional problems. Sufficient funding remains a persistent challenge to clean coal efforts as well.