Stan My Man

Our smokestacks can still breathe freely just like you or I can. But the eco-warriors won't quit: they're still trying to stop our strip mines, tax benefits, and smoke stacks.

That's why it's very good news that today President Bush, himself a former energy executive, nominated Stanley Suboleski to be assistant secretary of fossil energy, a top post in the Department of Energy.

Normally, I am opposed to anyone trying to regulate fossil fuels. We in the industry are 100% trustworthy when it comes to looking after the air, the groundwater, and our mines. However, in Mr. Suboleski, we get a regulator who knows that regulation can be a burden--one that should be vigorously challenged.

Stan, in his academic and lobbying roles, has been a champion of industrial freedom and a foe to environmental regulation. But he doesn't just talk the talk. From 2001-2003, as chief operating officer of the mining company Massey Energy, Stan lead a company that courageously took on $2.4 billion in fines for more than 4,000 Clean Water Act violations at its coal operations in West Virginia and Kentucky. Stan and Massey Energy didn't just complain about regulations--they attacked them head-on. Standing up to regulatory agencies isn't for the faint-of-heart. Stan, as a new leader of those agencies, will have the courage to put these regulatory agents back in their rightful place: in their offices shuffling papers and not poking around our mines, obsessing over drinking water quality, or worrying about what's in our air.

With Al Gore and the IPCC in the news so much recently, many of us in the industry were getting worried about all the attention to fossil fuels. Now, with Stan's nomination, all our nation's hardworking smokestacks can breathe a little easier and more freely.