Energy security

Coal key to national security strategy

Following record-setting low temperatures, the importance of reliable, abundant, and inexpensive energy is now more obvious than ever. It was certainly appropriate that the 2017 National Security Strategy, released on Dec. 18, three days before the start of winter, emphasized energy security.

To “Promote American prosperity,” one of the vital national interests identified in the NSS, the strategy asserts that “our Nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources.” One of the most important of its domestic resources, which America is no longer taking full advantage of, are its vast coal reserves.

Testifying on Nov. 28 at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public hearing on the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, W.Va., Robert E. Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., summarized the situation: “Prior to the election of President Obama, 52% of America’s electricity was generated from coal, and this rate was much higher in the Midwest. That percentage of coal generation declined under the Obama Administration to 30%. Under the Obama Administration, and its so-called Clean Power Plan, over 400 coal-fired generating plants totaling over 100,000 megawatts of capacity were closed with no proven environmental benefit whatsoever.”