Published January 1999 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Coal for the 21st Century
Since the state's beginning, West Virginia's economy has been rooted deep in the coal seams. From one end of the state to the other, thousands of families have depended on coal-related jobs to put food on the table, to pay the doctor bills, and to send children to college. I am proud to say that much of what I am today and the values and beliefs that are the underpinnings of my character are the result of my roots in West Virginia coal mining communities. The coal industry has changed greatly since I was a boy. Advancements in mining equipment have made it easier to pull coal out of the ground. Improved transportation methods move the coal more quickly to market. Safety advancements have been spurred by partnerships involving the entire coal industry. While fresh challenges to the coal industry await, experience should show that they can be met and conquered. One promising strategy for harnessing change to the benefit of the coal industry is a program that I introduced in Congress in 1984. In that year, I proposed, and the Congress adopted, a $750 million Clean Coal Technology (CCT) program. Originally, the program was designed to achieve long-term, real reductions in acid rain. Since then, the program has expanded thanks to a joint government-industry investment of more than $6 billion. This investment has led to 40 first-of-a-kind projects in 18 states, including an array of high-technology ideas that can spearhead a new era of clean, efficient power plants which will continue to bum our nation's abundant coal resources. In addition to the benefits at home, the CCT program can also prove beneficial environmentally and economically on the international market. Developing nations are searching for cost-effective ways to upgrade their older, higher polluting power plants and to expand their power production capacity. These nations can learn from our experiences and utilize our new technologies to combat these problems. My life has spanned great changes in technology, in energy production and consumption, and in the global economy. Through all of this, coal has been a constant, in all its forms and uses. If the partnerships that have proved so valuable already are continued and if the investment in new technologies is expanded, I believe that the challenges of the coming age can be met, and light the way to a new millennium for coal as well as for environmental and energy policy. January 20, 1999