We applaud West Virginia leaders who find themselves having to defend the obvious — that Mountain State coal and natural gas are still very much needed to power the United States and the world.

Despite the claim made by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry at the 2023 United Climate Change Conference — that there “shouldn’t be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world” — neither the United States nor the world is ready to abandon coal.

Kudos to U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who called Kerry out for his “empty promises and unachievable goals.”

“John Kerry says, ‘No coal plants shall be permitted anywhere in the world.’ He’s in Dubai telling everybody that he, himself, and this administration will shut down and no longer permit — which there’s no coal-fired power plants being built anyway — but won’t be permitted, but they will be shut down by 2030,” Capito said during a Senate GOP leadership press conference. “There’s no plan to replace. These are empty promises that he’s taking to the world community in the name of being the ‘climate czar’ for our great country.”

Kerry’s comments — on top of rules proposed by the EPA that would require coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants to capture greenhouse gas emissions in order to be allowed to operate — show an elitist view that currently can’t be supported by technology.

This type of talk only serves to pump up those who favor a greener approach to power generation, which is convenient as we’re heading into an election.

Instead of false hopes or, worse, delusional policy set to attain dangerous goals that could only be reached by draconian cuts to the current power generation capacity, U.S. leaders should heed the call to continue developing green energy, as well as carbon capture technology, while also realizing that coal and natural gas must remain a part of the nation’s energy policy.

Gov. Jim Justice also highlighted Kerry’s comments, saying that the climate envoy and the Biden administration are trying to “kill coal.”

“In my opinion, it’s the dumbest thing on the planet,” Justice said. “But it all originated with Barack Obama, and Barack Obama has been poison in our lives, in my opinion, from Day One.”

The governor also has said he would urge West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to legally challenge the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rules.

“Without any question, I will absolutely urge our attorney general — Patrick will do a good job with regard to this,” Justice said. “I will urge anybody and everybody to challenge through our court system or whatever it may be to absolutely see that this doesn’t come to pass.”

As we’ve noted before, there will come a day when renewables will make up a much larger part of electricity generation in the United States and the world. The use of renewables like hydropower, solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear continues to grow.

But coal and natural gas still make up a large portion of the energy generation portfolio — and that must continue in order to solidify the power grid needed for economic growth and personal use.

As U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has noted, an all-in energy policy is necessary to ensure the United States has a strong national security policy.

A nation as great as the United States should not be dependent on any other country for energy development. Let’s work together to push an all-in policy that will power us to an even greater future.