Manchin, UMWA president call for job preservation, creation as priority for energy transition

As the country transitions from fossil fuel to renewable energy, preserving current jobs and creating new ones for coal miners must be a priority, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and United Mineworkers President Cecil Roberts said at a National Press Club virtual Headliners event Monday.

“Ensuring our coal miners aren’t left behind as America transitions to a cleaner energy future is one of my top priorities," Manchin said.

Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called for funding research into carbon capture and sequestration as well as incentives to encourage domestic energy manufacturing.

In addition to job creation, the union called for assistance for coalfield families and communities. The union also released its plan for  “Preserving Coal Country.”

“We can maintain the current good paying jobs we have and create new jobs by carbon capture sequestration,” Roberts said. “We could do one thing in this nation to put coal miners back to work in a very quick manner, and that would be to start making steel in this country again." 

Roberts said that two-thirds of all wind turbines and two-thirds of all material used in solar power are made in China, which is investing heavily in carbon capture sequestration. “Someone is going to develop this technology and it ought to be” the United States, he said. “We should not be at the mercy of China” for solar panels or for any technology related to energy,  he added. 

While many lawmakers advocate an end to the use of fossil fuel, Manchin said, ”I’m for innovation, not for elimination.” 

Of 667 coal-fired plants under construction around the world, none are in the United States, Manchin said. There are 5,286 existing power plants, including 4,700 outside the United States, that continue to use coal. Lawmakers should consider the total energy picture before demanding that coal-fired plants in the United States close, he said.

Manchin also announced he will co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the House last month. 

“Fifty percent of unions fail in their first year of organizing,” Manchin said. “This legislation will level the playing field.” 

Roberts said he, too, supports the act.

"We need more jobs, but those jobs need to be good paying jobs," Roberts said. "That’s why it is so important for this country to pass” this bill to allow “people who want to join a union to have that opportunity.”