00:00Senator Justice, you're up next.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member.
00:06Thank all of y'all for coming.
00:08I mean, really and truly, when it really boils right down to it,
00:12you're great witnesses, you're great nominees,
00:15and really and truly I'm anxious to be able to see you confirmed
00:19because I know you'll do fabulous work.
00:21That's all there is to it.
00:22I welcome your families.
00:24I am extremely impressed with just this.
00:27It's your acknowledgment of God in your life.
00:31I mean, it is absolutely just what we should all be doing,
00:35in my opinion, all the time because the blessings are unbelievable.
00:39You know, we see the tragedies all across our nation.
00:42We see what's going on in Texas right now,
00:44and it just jerks your heart out.
00:46I mean, that's just all there is to it.
00:47And please, God above, some way, somehow, you know, look after those folks.
00:54But I would just tell you just this, you know,
00:57I'm, for all practical purposes, a new kid in town.
01:01But I've been an energy kid for a long, long, long time.
01:05And really and truly it is an honor beyond belief to be on this committee.
01:11And why would you think that?
01:14And I mean, really and truly, I've got tons to do in my life.
01:18And why would that be such an unbelievable honor for me?
01:23And it's just simply just this.
01:25I have said this till I'm blue-green.
01:28Energy is everything.
01:31Energy is everything.
01:32It's in every part of every single thing that we do.
01:36And our country today needs you like you can't imagine.
01:42Every single last bit of you, we need you.
01:47And so, you know, when I was the governor, I was the governor of West Virginia,
01:51and I had the honor to be that for eight years.
01:53And I embraced all the energy forms because I knew what was coming.
01:59Right around the corner here, we're going to have a meltdown on energy in this country,
02:04and if we don't watch out, we're going to be in a real mess.
02:08And then we're going to have to make decisions.
02:10We're going to need to decide, well, we can have that, but we can't have this.
02:14And America doesn't normally do that.
02:16And if we can't have this, we're going to be at a real disadvantage that could be
02:22a national defense disadvantage and whatever it may be.
02:26Now, the only other tidbit I would say about embracing all is let's just have a fair playing field.
02:34I mean, for God's sakes of living, let's not give one form, you know,
02:38so many benefits and perks and everything and take away from another.
02:43And please, to God above, let's quit thinking of coal as a bad word.
02:50Our coal miners have worked so hard.
02:54And Mr. Erdos, you know, just talked about his dad.
02:58Thirty years in the coal mines and everything.
03:01In an underground mine.
03:02Right at this moment, right this very second,
03:06there's people that are thousands and thousands of feet underground
03:10in coal seams that they cannot hardly sit up
03:13and no way they can stand up.
03:16They may be in 40 inches of coal,
03:18thousands of feet underground.
03:20For all of us.
03:22For absolutely all of us.
03:24They're good people.
03:26They're family people.
03:28We need them.
03:29My good Lord above.
03:31We need them today.
03:32So let's quit thinking and blowing our own legs off
03:37and letting the world on some righteous movement, you know,
03:40that we're going to blow our own legs off
03:43and have China build a coal-fired power plant every other day.
03:46It's ridiculous.
03:47It's totally ridiculous.
03:49I would tell all of you just this.
03:52We are so lucky to have you.
03:55Your experience is off the chart.
03:58That's your service is off the chart.
04:00And I'm very, very anxious to work with you in every way.
04:04I really only have one question.
04:06It came to me from the Coal Association.
04:08And so this is for Mr. Erdos and everything.
04:11And I wish you'd call me Jim.
04:13I'd like to call all of you by your first names,
04:16Lanny or whatever it may be.
04:17And so, but with all that being said,
04:20the question was just this.
04:22In West Virginia, this is from the Coal Association,
04:25and Chris, this is from Chris Hamilton.
04:28He's a good guy, and he's asking this question,
04:30and he wanted me to ask it.
04:32In West Virginia, West Virginia has nine program amendments
04:35pending approval at OSM today.
04:38The oldest is 16 years old.
04:42And in most of these cases, the state rules,
04:44we have complied exactly with the language of the Office of Service and Mining.
04:48So my question is real quick.
04:50Will you just look?
04:53Will you just try to help and look?
04:55Because we need you.
04:57Thank you for the question, Senator.
04:58Yeah, absolutely I will.
05:00Program amendments are a problem.
05:01It's been a problem for 10 to 15 years at OSM.
05:03And I know Chris very, very well.
05:05And I'm familiar with some of those program amendments.
05:07So one of the things we'll do,
05:08if I'm fortunate enough to get confirmed,
05:11I will be briefed by staff day one relative to program amendments.
05:15It's important to me, too.
05:16Ohio has one probably 12 years old.
05:18It's been sitting there.
05:18So there are things that we need to do at OSM to fix that.
05:21And it can be fixed.
05:22And we were working on that under the previous administration,
05:25the Trump administration, when I was there.
05:26So we'll do those things.
05:28And with that backlog down, I absolutely will look at those.
05:32And I'm sorry that you have to put up with Chris.
05:34He's a great guy.
05:35Like you said, he's a great guy.
05:37Thank you all.
05:38Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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