St. Louis Post-Dispatch: For struggling coal miners, are trees the answer?
Tom Clarke is planting the seed that he hopes will save, or at least cushion the fall, of the coal industry that is so tied to the Appalachian region he calls home.
Actually, for his plan to work, he’ll have to plant hundreds of millions of them.
The Roanoke, Va., hospital executive and conservationist turned heads last week when his Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund said it would acquire some of the last remaining assets of Patriot Coal, subject to bankruptcy court approval.
Through a new coal company it formed, ERP Compliant Fuels LLC, Clarke’s environmental group would assume some $400 million of bankrupt Patriot’s liabilities for mine restoration and worker compensation. It would take over some closed mines and one that’s still producing.
And it would keep mining coal there.
Meanwhile, his group would plant trees. Millions of them. Enough to suck up 10 percent to 30 percent of the climate change-causing carbon dioxide that burning the coal would emit. They’d get the amount certified and attach it to the coal, creating a premium product.
“What we’ve created is a brand new compliance instrument,” Clarke said in a phone interview. “It’s a whole new product. It’s just like derivatives on Wall Street. It’s a financial instrument.”
The land is available for reforestation, says Clarke, who runs the Conservation Fund when he isn’t busy as CEO of Kissito Healthcare. And the organization that verifies the carbon offset credits — the American Carbon Registry — already exists and turns similar reforestation projects into securities for use in California’s carbon credit market.
His group, in partnership with privately managed tree planting and carbon offset group GreenTrees, has already planted tens of millions of trees, he said. And last week’s announcement is only the first.
“That’s the beginning of our coal company,” he said. “You’ll be seeing a lot of announcements. A lot of them. Fast and furious.”
Clarke’s bold strategy comes as the industry is reaching for a life preserver. Coal was knocked down by oversupply and new competition from cleaner natural gas brought on by the fracking revolution. The Environmental Protection Agency is keeping its boot on the industry by regulating carbon and other pollutants. Current rules would keep it from ever regaining its former market share, and efforts to cut carbon further could ultimately end its use as a fuel for electricity in many countries.
The sector’s current difficulties and bleak future have led to mounting bankruptcy filings, including the second for Patriot in less than two years. The former Creve Coeur-based company moved to West Virginia in January.
Clarke acknowledges that the industry’s decline will continue as the world tries to reduce carbon emissions to minimize the impacts of climate change. But the transition has been devastating to the Appalachian economy, with tens of thousands of people out of work.
