From the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail — Originally published Monday, June 22

… The inconvenient truth is that the United States must have a realistic, rational, national energy policy. …

Coal provides half the electric power that Americans count on. …

The United States will remain dependent on coal for decades to come, because adequate replacement sources do not exist and may never exist. Americans would have to cover hundreds of thousands of square miles of land … with windmills and solar cells to generate even a fraction of the power that now comes from coal.

That energy would be far more expensive, too.

A coal-free future would do devastating damage to the American economy.

None of that matters to the zealous fringe, which is interested only in the great morphed-up bugaboo called “global warming.”

… They do not concern themselves with the realities West Virginians face. They are not responsible for whether their fellow Americans have the reliable, reasonably priced power they need to sustain a competitive economy.

Elected officials — state and national — are responsible for all that and more.

It’s heavier lifting than grandstanding for television cameras, and should be taken more seriously.