Senator Brian Helton (R-Fayette) says the coal industry has been under assault since the Biden and Obama administrations.
According to the senator, we lost six coal-fired plants due to stringent EPA regulations that mandate our utility companies.
“To use renewable, unreliable sources of energy such as wind and solar has had a terrible impact on our economy in West Virginia,” he said. “It’s resulted in the loss of so many jobs and opportunities for West Virginians; instead of utilizing hot, burning West Virginia coal.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Sen. Brian Helton, the West Virginia Coal Association, and others support President Trump’s new actions on energy policy.
“This resolution, the Coal Renaissance Act, calls on the utility companies to return to a 69% usage of our coal-fired plants,” said Helton. “It calls on them to move away from unreliable energy sources.”
West Virginians take pride in their coal industry. The senator says we have the greatest natural resource right here.
“Follow President Trump’s initiative and our new EPA guidelines, do the right thing, and restore these coal-fired plants to full production,” Helton said.
According to the senator, coal has endless benefits — from stabilized electric bills to gainful employment for West Virginians, to improved national security.
“Wind and solar; these other types of renewable energies are an intermittent source of energy. They’re very unreliable if the wind doesn’t blow hard enough or the sun doesn’t shine bright enough,” Helton said. “Right now our government has subsidized and played favorites to pick the Green New Deal unreliable sources of energy.”
When it comes to the most reliable source of energy, the senator says coal proves itself time and again.
“What powers the last 200 years of our Industrial Revolution has been powered by coal,” said Helton. “We want to return to that powerful place. “Have a reliable source of energy that does nothing but boom economically for Southern West Virginia and across the United States of America.”
