KARTHAUS – The Quehanna Industrial Development Corp. (QIDC) hosted local, state and federal leaders Wednesday to not only discuss the stricter regulations imposed on the coal industry by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but also to hear about the negative impacts of those on local coal companies.
“I think there needs to be some concessions, especially on the regulatory side . . . to help make plans for the future. The way it is right now, you cannot make a plan and follow through with it,” said Larry Kanour of River Hill Coal Company.
State Rep. Matt Gabler of the 75th District said the federal government needs to revisit the regulations. He said, “It’s about making sure our regulations that get written into the books and never get touched again actually do get reviewed.”
State Rep. Tommy Sankey of the 74th District agreed. He said if there aren’t regulatory changes soon, the coal industry – locally and nationally – will face even more issues down the road.
“If they keep going the way that they’re going, they’re going to be out of business. It’s not just them; it is all of them. It’s all of the small guys and at some point it’s all of the big guys. They’re going to come for all of them,” he said.
In Clearfield County, more than 700 people are directly employed by coal companies. Further, a few thousand more people are employed by spin-off jobs that are indirectly impacted by coal companies.
“It is going to put a lot of people out of business. We have too much unemployment already,” said Ray Savel of the QIDC. In February, Clearfield County’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.6 percent.
Savel said he’s worried about the future of the local coal industry with the Shawville Generating Station to close in 2015. The coal-fired power plant currently employs about 80 people; however, its closure will have farther-reaching impacts so far as indirect jobs.
“We have regulations on top of regulations that are not making any environment any safer. Yet it is making it more costly to do business and that costs us jobs,” Gabler said.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. had representatives in attendance. They asked to be notified of the specific regulations that are impacting local coal companies.
There will be another meeting sometime this summer to outline short- and long-term goals for working toward a solution.