The last week of April (April 26 – May 2, 2009) will commemorate Coal Education Week in the Mountain State, as officially declared by Governor Joe Manchin III.
 
The Governor presented the proclamation to the CEDAR Board of Directors during a ceremony Tuesday, April 7, at 10:30 a.m. in the West Wing governor’s reception room at the State Capitol.

Plans are moving forward for the construction of a Clean Energy Research and Development Facility at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, Abingdon, VA.  In the spring of 2008, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission awarded the Higher Education Center $8 million for capital construction of the R&D Center (more information about the facility included in the position narrative).
 
The Energy Task Force Committee, chaired by Kevin Crutchfield, met today, and during the meeting there was discussion as to whether the job had been adequately advertised in publications that interested and experienced individuals might view the application.  The application says the deadline for applying is March 31 however, the deadline has been extended to April 15, or until the best qualified candidate is found.  It was suggested that the job application be placed on the websites of Eastern Coal Council, Kentucky Coal Association, National Mining Association, Southern States Energy Board, Virginia Coal Association, and  West Virginia Coal Association.
 
Please find attached the position narrative for the director of the research facility.  Considerable knowledge of research procedures, analytical processes, economic development and the ability to assess the needs of the region are highly desired.  The successful candidate will have a working knowledge of strategic planning, resource allocation, and providing effective leadership.  Experience working with applied research, institutional effectiveness (securing grants and grant funding), and related educational training/development are also strongly desired.  The ideal candidate will be familiar with raising funds for operational budgets, new research projects and attaining new business ventures.
 
Please feel free to share with individuals you think might be in this position:

• Proven experience in planning, budgeting, administrations, execution, and evaluation preferably with applied research programs;
• Demonstrated success in securing sources of revenue for new initiatives with preference given to research programs;
• Prior experience in strategic planning, resource allocation, and providing effective leadership.
• Proven experience in building and sustaining a range of collaborative partnerships;
• Proven  ability  to communicate effectively with policy makers at the national, state, and local levels;
• Demonstrable personal effectiveness in setting standards, reaching solutions and completing tasks for multiple concurrent projects;
• Successful experience in leading and supervising a complex organization;
• Considerable knowledge of research procedures, analytical processes, economic development and the ability to assess the needs of the region are highly desired.
• The ideal candidate will be familiar with raising funds for operational budgets, new research projects and attaining new business ventures.
• Strong familiarity with the research and education enterprise of higher education.

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact Kevin Crutchfield or Rachel Fowlkes, Executive Director, Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center at 276-619-4300.

To the Editor:

On a statewide basis, surface mining and mountaintop mining methods account for over 40 percent of our state’s total tonnage produced on an annual basis. In several regions, it represents over 75 percent of all mining and thus all mining revenues. Surface mining and mountaintop mining are extremely important to our energy portfolio and our state’s financial stability.

You criticize the initial impacts of the extractive phase, that is, blasting or other earth-moving activity. But you do not mention the restoration phase of mining, nor the development that follows the extractive process.

Most of the mine sites are returned to a higher and better use, or at a minimum to their original approximate contour. Many of the sites are reforested with wildlife habitat incorporated into the final plan, and a number of the former mine sites have been reconfigured by the mining company to accommodate residential, industrial or recreational use.

Our mine managers and miners devote great attention to environmental stewardship. They not only work the land, they also hunt and enjoy the land.

Chris Hamilton
Senior Vice President
West Virginia Coal Association
Charleston, W.Va., March 17, 2009

West Virginia professional angler Jeremy Starks had his personal best start to a tournament season yet when he finished 37th out of 100 at this past weekend’s Battle on the Border on Lake Amistad in Del Rio, Texas – the first event on the 2009 Bassmasters Elite Series Tour.

“While I was gunning to win the tournament, I’m absolutely thrilled to have finished where I did given my past performances on Lake Amistad and in season opening tournaments,” Starks said.

It's a nomadic way to make a living, but for bass fishing pro Jeremy Starks it's a dream come true.   The native of Cedar Grove, West Virginia prepares to embark on his third full season of fishing professionally on the ESPN/BASS Elite series.     A year ago, Starks achieved a level that few who try the cast for cash way of life ever achieved when he won the "Southern Challenge" on Lake Wheeler in Alabama.    It was the highlight of a breakout year for the young angler who says after a brief recharge of the batteries he's chomping at the bit to get back on the water.

Jeremy Starks

"Immediately after the season I went to Michigan and spent a few weeks bird hunting to wind down," said Starks during a sendoff at Walker Machinery in Kanawha County earlier this week. "But immediately I was right back into fishing.  I did some fishing in Michigan, went to Texas and Florida a couple of times and to Kentucky Lake."

Starks says experience has taught him the longer you distance yourself from the rod and reel, the rustier you become.

"I've really struggled the last few years at the beginning of the year and finally come into a groove about the middle of the year.  I think a lot of that has to do with taking time off and this year I've really tried not to do that," Starks said.

Starks will have his work cut out for him in 2009.   He's planning to fish 13 bass events that will take him to all corners of the country.  It begins the weekend of March 12-15 on LakeAmistad near Del Rio, Texas. 

"Amistad is unique in that you're looking for giants.  You're not just fishing for three to four pounders, you're fishing for eight to ten pounders and that's really a different ballgame," Starks said.

On Tuesday, Walker Machinery hosted a first class, well attended “send off” for Friends of Coal professional bass fisherman Jeremy Starks that featured Steve Walker, Coach Bob Pruett, Governor Manchin and Bill Raney.  They were joined by many of Jeremy's other sponsors, such as Pocahontas Land Corporation, Sport Mart, Petroleum Products and Tyler-Morgan Coal Company to witness the introduction of Jeremy’s new boat, trailer and truck.  It features the “Clean Coal” message as Jeremy begins the ESPN Bassmaster’s Elite Series Tournament circuit.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Coal Association introduced a new and prestigious award for safety at this year’s Symposium in Charleston.  The award honors those forward-looking companies who, over the long-term, place safety and innovation at the forefront of their activities. 

The award has been named after a man whose contributions to the advancement of mining safety and innovation are known industry-wide; and, whose character symbolized the ingenuity, tenacity and leadership required to continually improve in our pursuit of the safest workplace possible for our employees and ourselves.

 “It is an honor to pay tribute to Eustace Frederick with this award,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “It is an honor for our industry to carry his legacy forward in this manner – the highest award we have to offer for safety.  By naming this award after him, the bar is set very high for attaining this distinction.” 

You can download the 2009 Coal Symposium Presentations here.

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You can download hi-resolution versions here.

At the Board of Director’s meeting held on Wednesday during the Symposium the following new members were approved for membership:  As a general (producing) member was Rhino Eastern LLC, with Jason Miller as their representative; Associate members were: Lilly Environmental, Division of The Lilly Company, representative Johnny Frazier; Reclamation Services, Inc., representative Brian Cyrus; SCC Americas LLC, representative Clark Talkington; and, VicTaulic, representative Ronald K. Hunt.

Welcome to all and we look forward to working with you.

...

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The 36th Annual West Virginia Mining Symposium is now complete and has been described as the “most successful” one ever.  The new venue of the Charleston Civic Center gave us much more room and seemed to be enjoyed by all in attendance.  A huge thanks goes to the members who stepped up as some of the many sponsors who made it so successful and dynamic.

Alpha Engineering Services is having their 5th edition of Basic & Advanced Topics in Coal Mine Surveying & Mapping on April 23 & 24 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center in Beckley, WV.

The session will be in seminar style with lecture, discussion and case studies.  The WV PE & PS Boards do not pre-certify seminars but have accepted these PDH’s in the past.  The KY surveyors’ board has approved the course for 8 PDH credits each day.

For additional information contact Ellen at Alpha Engineering (304) 255-4131 or ehartsog@alphaengineer.com

Global Warming advocates have made a habit of arguing that Global Warming not only will lead to more natural disasters, but actually has already done so. Climate realists, including this newsletter at times, have just as frequently pointed out that there is no evidence to support this claim. Well it seems our side has a new ally: Al Gore. That's right. The Goracle himself has removed a slide from his oft-rebutted PowerPoint presentation "An Inconvenient Truth" that contained a graph which purported to show an incredible spike in disasters in recent years. He culled the data from Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times explains:

"The graph, which was added to his talk last year, came just after a sequence of images of people from Iowa to South Australia struggling with drought, wildfire, flooding and other weather-related calamities. Mr. Gore described the pattern as a manifestation of human-driven climate change. "This is creating weather-related disasters that are completely unprecedented," he said. (The preceding link is to a video clip of that portion of the talk; go to 7th minute.)

"Now Mr. Gore is dropping the graph, his office said today. Here's why.

CHARLESTON — Pat McGeehan was only 15 when he stood in a flight line near Spokane, Wash., with his mother and the two gazed in horror at the crash of a B-52 bomber that killed his father, Col. Mark McGeehan.

Just a few years later, the surviving son saw himself thrust into combat situations in volatile Afghanistan.

From such experiences has grown a new lawmaker determined to help America grow energy self-reliant.

The fateful crash that robbed him of his father and his combat days in the Middle East have inspired McGeehan to produce his first bill — one he hopes can expedite coals to liquid theory into commercial and practical use.