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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2001

"AMERICA MUST FOCUS - AND FOCUS NOW - ON INCREASING ENERGY SUPPLY AND THE USE OF COAL"

Washington -- "Demand for energy has outstripped supply. The United States must focus – and focus now – on an energy strategy that supports the expansion of our domestic energy supply," said a mining industry spokesman in testimony given today before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality.

Brett Harvey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy, Inc., testified on behalf of the National Mining Association, and spoke in support of a balanced national energy policy that takes full advantage of all energy resources, including coal, natural gas, petroleum, uranium and renewable energy.

In commending Subcommittee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) for his foresight in holding the hearings on the need for a National Energy Policy, Harvey said "reliable, affordable energy is a top priority for the country. Coal is domestic, plentiful, reliable, and coal and coal-generated electricity is affordable and increasingly clean."

"Coal is our country's largest domestic fuel source whether measured in terms of reserves or production. We produce over 1.1 billion tons of coal per year and over 90 percent of that goes for the production of over half of our nation's electricity," Harvey testified and added, "between 90 and 95 percent of our fossil reserves are coal. The coal industry can certainly produce the coal needed to meet new demands, but to do so, will require a number of policy changes."

Harvey said some of those policy changes must include opening up reserves now shut off to development, as well as changes in interpretation of environmental regulations related to mining and coal combustion, and changes in tax policies.

"At the current time at least 15 separate regulatory actions dealing with SO2, NOx, and mercury are now either pending at the Environmental Protection Agency or are in litigation. These actions are based on the faulty premise that an increase in coal means an increase in emissions. This is simply not true," Harvey said.

Harvey told the subcommittee that coal use for electricity generation is greater now than at any time in our nation's history, yet emissions have declined 30 percent since 1970. "The standards of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 are being met – and then some," Harvey explained.

"We have the technologies to increase coal use and continue to see a decline in emissions," Harvey said. "Legislative efforts are underway to make certain that these technologies are brought into the commercial marketplace."