Published: April 20, 2022 |

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Sen. Tim Kaine said Monday Pres. Joe Biden’s insistence on using steel and iron only made in the United States is the right move to make.

Metallurgical coal, produced in this region, is used in the production of steel.

“Met coal is really good for for steel production. If we can do more ‘by America’ it will be good for American workers. It will be particularly good for regions like Southwest Virginia,” Senator Kaine said.

Kaine discussed the topic during a stop at the Falls Mills Adult Day Care Center, and said green energy continues to be pursued, like wind farms off Virginia Beach.

“We need to do that too, but we can’t rely on other countries,” Kaine said of the current need for energy. “I think we learned that during COVID with masks and gloves from other countries (with a shortage of manufacturing here) that put many health care institutions in a jam.”

Kaine said Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin has created a situation where Europe is being held hostage by the need for Russian oil.

“We have to rely on our own manufacturing and own resources significantly,” Kaine said.

That “Made in America” mantra is now part of Biden’s speeches.

“From Day One, every action I’ve taken to rebuild our economy has been guided by one principle: Made in America,” Biden said Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina, The Associated Press reported. “It takes a federal government that doesn’t just give lip service to buying American but actually takes action.”

On Monday, Biden said that starting on May 14, “none of the funds” allocated to federal agencies for projects may be spent “unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States.”

The impact of the infrastructure bill as well as the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have validated a prediction made last fall by Steve Sarver, Chief Commercial Officer of the Bluestone Corporation, which is owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family.

Sarver said in a mine reclamation story, long before the Ukraine invasion, the infrastructure bill would help this region.

“We mine metallurgical coal to sell to people like U.S. Steel…to make steel to build bridges, to build roads. Without the metallurgical coal industry, you could not have an infrastructure bill,” Sarver said.

Sarver said the Justice companies have coke ovens in Birmingham, Ala., and “we’ve owned them for about two years now … and we send the coke to blast furnaces all over American.”

Metallurgical coal is sent to coke ovens which then produce the coke that is used to fire the blast furnaces that make steel, which will be used for roads and bridges and other projects as a result of the infrastructure bill.

He said metallurgical coal is used because it burns cleaner and the coke made from it produces a higher temperature needed to make steel.

Sarver said it is “ironic” that the current administration in Washington, which has “not been very favorable to coal,” is now going to rely on coal to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges.

The Justice corporation has nine active mining operations in this area, he said, in McDowell and Tazewell counties, all metallurgical coal mines.

Other mines could open, he predicted, including one called Beartown in Keystone in McDowell County.

“We are getting ready to start a big project here in Bishop with highwall miners which produce a lot of tons. There are a lot more reserves and assets,” Sarver said.

Sarver said that Justice companies are now mining about 2 million tons a year, but that could change dramatically with the passage of the infrastructure bill.

“If the price stays up and the demand is there,” Sarver said, the production could more than double.

More employees would also be needed, about twice as many as the current 500, probably jumping to more than 1,000.

Sarver said the demand for metallurgical coal is not going to go away and the industry should be “embraced.”

With the invasion of Ukraine and domestic production and resources now being pushed on a federal level, Sarver’s statement of, “You’ve go to have it,” has hit home.

Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph

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