In the News

By Bill Archer
© January 14, 2012
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NARROWS, Va. — Since his election in 2010, U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., has been at loggerheads with the Environmental Protection Agency, and his bill H.R. 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, has put him at odds with the environmental community, but Griffith sees his work in very personal terms.

“I see the Celanese plant in Narrows as the poster child for the Boiler MACT provision of H.R. 2250,” Griffith said during a meeting Friday with the Bluefield Daily Telegraph editorial board. MACT is Maximum Achievable Control Technology. “The Celanese plant is located on the banks of the New River,” he said. “There is no natural gas pipeline to the New River and no plans for one to cross the New River at any point.

“When I meet with town councils and boards of supervisors in my district, they understand that it is unlikely that a natural gas pipeline will be built to the New River, and they know  what it would take to get it across the New River,” Griffith said. He added that the time period allowed by code would not enable an upgrade to gas-fired boilers even if it was possible for the company to clear all of the other formidable hurdles in the process.

“I look at the 700 jobs at the Celanese plant,” Griffith said. “It’s the largest employer in Giles County. It’s an international company with operations in other counties including China. They have a 70 year presence in Giles County with no desire to leave Virginia, but do you think they will stay here if their production is halted until they can replace the fuel that operates their boilers? A lot of people in Southwest Virginia and this whole area count on that plant.”

Griffith said he was pleased by the actions of the Washington, D.C., District Court that lifted the EPA’s stay on the Boiler MACT rule that had been in place since May 2011. Griffith said that lifting the stay should provide some momentum for the EPA Regulatory Relief Act in Congress.

“Even with all that has happened, you have President (Barack) Obama going over to the EPA and administrator Lisa Jackson telling her that she’s doing a wonderful job, or something to that effect. You can read the quotes,” he said. During a meeting on Tuesday with 800 EPA employees, President Obama praised the work of the EPA and was quoted as stating: “You have a president who is grateful for your work and will stand with you every inch of the way.”

Griffith said that he said he didn’t expect to see any changes in the administration’s position toward coal if the president is re-elected and added that even if the nation changes administrations this year, the gap in coal mining permits during the past three-plus years will have an impact in the coal industry for years to come.