Justice says anti-coal pledge at climate forum is 'dumbest thing on the planet'

Dec. 6—West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is taking exception to the anti-coal comments made recently by John Kerry at the international United Nations climate change summit.

At that forum, Kerry, who serves as the Biden administration's Special Envoy for Climate, announced that the United States would begin phasing out all existing coal-based power plants. Kerry also called for coal use to be eliminated across the world.

Justice, speaking Tuesday during his weekly administration briefing, said Kerry and President Joe Biden are continuing the war on coal which he said originated with former President Barack Obama.

"You've seen where recently the Biden administration has joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance," Justice said. "You know at this big international climate change conference last week basically what the Biden administration is saying, what John Kerry and everybody is saying, is we absolutely are pledging to kill coal. Kill it. Absolutely just make it go away. Well in my opinion it is the dumbest thing on the planet. But it all originated with Barack Obama."

Justice said Obama's war on coal continued with Hillary Clinton.

"We know where the craziness is coming from, and we need to push back," Justice said. "And I promise you I'm trying to push back as much as we possibly can. But my goodness gracious, these people are on a quest. And they are on a quest to eradicate us."

Other state and federal officials also took aim at Kerry's anti-coal comments Tuesday.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Kerry's plan was "unrealistic" and "unachievable." She spoke on the issue during the Senate Republican Leadership Press Conference Tuesday.

Capito said Kerry told world leaders that all coal-fired plants will be "shut down" by 2030.

Based upon Kerry's plan, Capito said states like West Virginia that still produce more than half of their energy from coal would be left in the dark come 2030.

"There are no plans to replace," Capito said. "These are empty promises he's taken to the world community in the name of being the (climate) czar."

The Biden administration plan makes "absolutely no sense at all," Capito said, adding that the plan is simply based upon the "hope" that the country and world will abandon coal by 2030.

"Hope is not a strategy, Mr. Kerry," Capito said.

West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the U.S. House 2nd District contest in West Virginia, called upon the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to block the international agreements made by Kerry at the climate conference.

"John Kerry has made the Biden Administration's position crystal clear: they want to eliminate the coal industry worldwide regardless of the economic destruction or inflation it will cause," Moore said. "For the past three years, Kerry — on behalf of the president — has been working behind the scenes on an unrelenting campaign to pressure private companies and global elites to eliminate fossil fuels and now he's no longer hiding their efforts to destroy this critical sector of our economy. Not only will this weaken the United States, but it will also embolden China — which is continuing to build up its coal-fired infrastructure."

Climate negotiators at the United Arab Emirates-hosted conference argued that the world needs to phase-out the use of coal, oil and natural gas, the Associated Press reported.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens