Volume 157, No. 151 covering the 1st Session of the 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“OPENING REMARKS FOR THE SCREENING OF THE LAST MOUNTAIN” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1813 on Oct. 11, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OPENING REMARKS FOR THE SCREENING OF THE LAST MOUNTAIN
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HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following. Thank you for coming this evening and welcome. I am excited to introduce to you The Last Mountain and I am proud to host its screening. It left quite an impression on me when I saw it and I trust it will do the same for you.
Scientific research shows that Mountaintop removal mining is devastating to both the environment and the health of Appalachian communities. It has created a water quality crisis in streams where the debris and spoil from mining sites have been dumped. It has created an environmental crisis for aquatic life in those streams and for the most biologically diverse forests in the world, which are being systematically destroyed by Mountaintop removal.
Mountaintop removal mining has created a public health crisis for people depending on those streams. The research shows that Appalachian residents of areas affected by mountaintop mining experience significantly more unhealthy days each year than the average American; and women who live in areas with high levels of mountaintop coal mining are more likely to have low birth-weight infants and poor birth outcomes.
Not only is mountaintop removal mining environmentally harmful, but it is actually a job destroyer, not a job creator. Studies have shown that mountaintop removal mining has actually had a negative impact on Appalachian employment. Because Mountaintop removal mining relies on enormous machines instead of individual, skilled miners, the number of mining jobs needed to produce each ton of coal has been drastically reduced. Mountaintop removal mining is essentially eliminating the miner from coal mining, contributing to a decrease in mining jobs.
In 1948, there were 126,000 coal-mining jobs in West Virginia and 169,000,000 tons of coal mined. In 2010, however, only 20,000 of these jobs remain despite the fact that almost the same amount of coal--
144,000,000 tons--had been mined. This job loss did not result from any regulation. Instead, it occurred because coal companies themselves have replaced workers with machines and explosives. The evidence is clear: mountaintop removal mining destroys both mountains and jobs.
Coal mining in general has experienced a diminishing share of employment in Appalachia as well. The cause is falling demand for coal. According to the Federal Reserve, the capacity of already permitted and active coal mines set an all-time record in 2010, while the utilization of that capacity was at a 25-year low. So, while enough permits have been approved to achieve a new record level of coal mine capacity, there is simply not enough demand for all of the coal that these mines can produce. Demand for coal, or the decision by consumers to use cleaner, more energy efficient forms of energy, is not something the EPA controls. It is a decision by made by electric generating plant operators and investors. Increasingly, they have chosen to fuel their power plants with natural gas, rather than coal.
Just last week, a study in the prestigious American Economic Review found that the damage from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. Coal plants wreak $53 billion worth of damage per year, not considering the enormous harm from climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of trying to fulfill its duty to increase scrutiny of Appalachian mountaintop mining permits. The efforts in the House to undermine the EPA are wrongheaded. I have fought them on the floor and I have fought them as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And I will continue to fight to stop not only mountaintop mining, but also coal.
Coal-based energy creates ponds of ash that are so toxic the Department of Homeland Security will not disclose their locations for fear of their potential to become a terrorist weapon; it fouls the air and water with sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulates, ozone, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and thousands of other toxic compounds that cause asthma, birth defects, learning disabilities, and pulmonary and cardiac problems . . . for starters.
In contrast, several times more jobs are yielded by renewable energy investments than comparable coal investments. We must redirect the resources of this great nation away from things like war and counterproductive spending cuts and toward creating millions of new jobs in the economic sector of tomorrow; green energy. I will be introducing a bill to create a Works Green Administration which will harness the innovative power of NASA to help create, refine, and ready for distribution the very technologies that put the power in the hands of the people. It will put people to work promoting and installing wind and solar microtechnologies, energy efficiencies, and much more.
Until then, I hope you enjoy the screening tonight. Thank you for your interest and for your time. I look forward to working with you to save mountains, streams, forests, and livelihoods.
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