The Ohio Republican spoke about two pieces of legislation passed by the House of Representatives that he introduced but Johnson said he was not holding out hope for the bills to make it through the Senate.
The first was the Stop the War on Coal Act introduced in 2012 and the other was the Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America Act, which was passed by the House in March.
He claimed the coal industry was being attacked from both production and utilisation standpoints.
Johnson has also campaigned against the rewriting of the stream buffer zone rule put in place by the previous administration.
According to Johnson, the rewrite would cause energy prices to skyrocket and effectively shut down underground coal mining operations due to the regulations.
He also spoke out over rules being formed by the Environmental Protection Agency regarding manganese ferroalloy, a required ingredient of steel manufacturing.
He said the rules would require manganese producers to place a dome over their plants, which would be “cost-prohibitive”.
While in the area, Johnson attended a number of events, such as the Second Annual Sixth District Collaboration Forum in St Clairsville on Wednesday.
The event brought together public officials and economic development experts to discuss the current trends and challenges for the US resource industry.
