Cap-and-trade legislation aimed at imposing harsher restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions is a “terrible” idea that would shut down some West Virginia coal mines and jack utility rates up by as much as 125 percent, the chairman of a key state legislative panel warned Friday.

By a thin margin, the House of Representatives approved the President Obama-backed bill that seeks to address what some claim is a man-made warming of the planet, but the Senate has taken no action so far.

If state Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, could work his will, the bill would die right where it now lies.

Under the normal legislative process — be it in Charleston or Washington — when the two chambers cannot agree on the same bill, conferees are appointed from each to hammer out differences.

“For the sake of West Virginia, I hope we don’t find a solution to this bill,” Green said.

Green chairs the state Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee, which, under his leadership, plans to begin an education process and get opinions by Senate members on the cap-and-trade bill.

Under the legislation, industrial polluters would be allowed a certain level of emissions, or a cap, but could trade with installations that use below their quota.

“The gist of this legislation is to help fund the universal health care that President Obama is pushing so hard right now,” Green said.

“We may be getting the cart before the horse on this. It’s just a bad piece of legislation.”

Before the measure exited the House, some changes were penciled in, including one that allows a 35 percent tax credit to utilities, “which kind of helps lessen the blow,” Green said.

“It’s still not anything that anyone from West Virginia is in a position to support,” he said, noting that all three representatives from the state voted against the measure.

Green warned the bedrock coal industry of the state would suffer, and eventually, utility consumers would get hit hard through higher bills.

“Ultimately, there’s not enough alternative energy solutions out there,” he said.

“The nation is going to have to mine coal. The nation is going to use coal for its energy source.”

Green said the bill would make some coal production costs prohibitive to the point that operators would be forced to either dramatically curtail mining or shut down altogether.

“There’s no question utility bills will increase drastically,” he said. “The numbers that are floating out there are from 50 to 125 percent an increase in utility bills.”

Green is convinced the general public isn’t aware of the bill’s contents or its potential ramifications, acknowledging he doesn’t fully understand the entirety of it.

“It’s a several hundred-page piece of legislation that’s all encompassing on many fronts of the energy industry,” he said.

“There’s $10 billion in there for clean coal technology and carbon sequestration, but when you look at the scope on a national level, that falls short of what we need to offset the drawbacks of this cap-and-trade,” he added. “It will be interesting to see what changes are made by the Senate and to see what the future holds for the cap-and-trade bill. But for now, I think it’s just a terrible piece of legislation for the state of West Virginia.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com