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From the time he was elected to the vacant seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has been a vocal proponent of coal. Shortly after an energy policy event in Washington, D.C., Manchin spoke with SNL Energy about a number of issues facing the coal industry in 2014, particularly challenges posed by the U.S. EPA. He also talked about a potential solution -- a bill to more quickly unlock $8 billion in funds from the Department of Energy to advance carbon capture technologies. Below is a transcript of the interview, edited for clarity and brevity.
SNL Energy: From where you're sitting, where does West Virginia's coal industry stand today?
Sen. Joe Manchin: It's challenging right now because of the uncertainty. The uncertainty in the rules, the regulations, the EPA, New Source Performance Standards, all the things that they're trying to push on us and not giving any certainty, so you have people sitting on the sidelines who are not willing to invest and move forward. Coal is still going to have quite a long future in America.
Even if you listen to the Energy Information Administration, even they identify that coal is going to be a major producer of electricity for the next 30 years. If that's the case, you would think the government would be working with us, in a partnership, to use it cleaner and better.
I don't know how they are going to be able to depend on coal to electrify this country and not be able to produce it. We're working through that. It's very, very challenging.
Even optimistic projections show coal's future is looking bad in Central Appalachia. Do you think that a long-term decline in coal production in southern West Virginia is an unchangeable reality, and what does that mean for the state?
I've always said, as far as the state goes, we're flexible. The bottom line is, we're pragmatic also, and if the country is depending on coal, there's more coal being burnt in the world than ever before, and we've got the resources, then work with us. It's our economy, it's our jobs, it's everything.
It'd be different if I, as a senator, was trying to get...