The WVCA Board of Directors had their “first ever” meeting at the Southern Community College in  Logan on Wednesday.  After receiving a guided tour of the facilities, the Board adjourned to private quarters to discuss Association business and to approve the associate membership of The Charleston Group of Citi Institutional Consulting, headed by Kelly L. Castleberry, III.  Welcome to The Charleston Group of Citi.

The final version of the Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM) revisions to the federal Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ) Rule was published today in the Federal Register.  Recall that OSM has revised the Rule to clarify that mining related activities such as valley fill and coal refuse impoundment construction is permissible in intermittent and/or perennial streams under the federal Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act.  Additionally, the revisions impose new regulatory requirements for the approval of mining related fill construction including a demonstration that the amount of fill material to be placed in a stream has been minimized and that the mining company has analyzed and ruled out alternatives to fill construction in streams. 
 
Today’s final rule comes after OSM conducted a full Environmental Impact Statement (published in September 2008) on the proposed changes and the concurrence of the federal Environmental Protection Agency with the revisions (December 2, 2008).  The rule will be effective 30 days from today or January 12, 2008.  For a copy of the final Rule and its supporting information contact jbostic@wvcoal.com

Nick Carter, President and COO of Natural Resource Partners L.P. and its subsidiaries as well as Western Pocahontas Properties Limited Partnership and New Gauley Coal Corp., has been named to the Board of Directors of the community Trust Bancorp., Inc. of Ashland, KY.
           
Community Trust Bancorp., Inc., with assets of $2.9 billion, is headquartered in Pikeville, KY and has 71 banking locations across eastern, central, south central and northeastern KY, 6 banking locations in southern West Virginia and 5 trust offices across Kentucky.
          
Congratulations Nick!

The Huntington District Waterways Association will hold its next meeting at the Guyan Golf & Country Club in Huntington on December 16 beginning at 11 a.m. and is open to anyone interested.
           
The  Kanawha  Valley is within the broad port designation of the “ Port of  Huntington Tri-State .”  Due to the coal, chemical, petroleum and other product tonnage, the  Port of  Huntington Tri-State ranks as the 7th or 8th busiest port in the nation with over 84 million tons originating and terminating within boundaries.
           
Guest Speakers are Waterways council outgoing President, Barry Palmer and incoming President, Cornel Martin.  Personnel from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard will also be present.
           
Please contact Bill Barr, with Amherst Industries, at 304/926-1117 if you plan to attend.

[googlevideo:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1252031188437573897]

The West Virginia Coal Association's new television show filmed its episode December 4 at the studios of the West Virginia Library Commission. The show, know as "The Coal Seam," is hosted by Senior Vice president Chris Hamilton and the first feature guest was association President Bill Raney. The show will air on Monday, December 8 at 11:00 a.m., 5:00 p.m. and again at 11:00 p.m. It will also air on Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. and the following Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The show will continue to air on Mondays at these same time slots for the duration of this year's season.

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The Herald-Dispatch

Julian Martin's Nov. 19 column, "Coal industry can't be trusted to be responsible," typifies the rhetoric and misinformation that anti-mining activists use to advance their cause. Instead, let's stick to the facts.

Fact: Surface mining is highly regulated by both the state and federal governments. Before receiving mining permits, coal producers must provide regulatory agencies with extensive and highly detailed mining plans that explain every facet of the mine's operation, its environmental impact and plans for reclaiming the land after mining is completed. Sizeable bonds are posted to assure reclamation. Regulators inspect mining sites to ensure coal operators are adhering to environmental and reclamation standards. If those standards are violated, regulators will issue notices of violation that result in fines to the operator or (for serious infractions) even closure of the mine.

Earlier this week, the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) announced that it has delivered its final version of the Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ) Rule to the Government Printing Office for publication in the Federal Register. The announcement follows the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s formal concurrence with the proposed changes.  The revisions should be formally published in the Federal Register within the next two weeks.  The changes to the SBZ Rule have been widely misconstrued by the press and the anti-mining extremists in the proceeding weeks as OSM prepared to finalize the SBZ Rule changes. 

“Working to Secure Our Nation’s Energy Future” is the title for the West Virginia 2008 Energy Summit hosted by the West Virginia Governor’s Office, WV Department of Commerce and Southern States Energy Board at Stonewall Resort on December 9, 2008.  The agenda follows:
 

The West Virginia Coal Association’s new television show filmed its first episode December 4 at the studios of the West Virginia Library Commission. The show, known as “The Coal Seam,” is hosted by Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton and the first featured guest was Association President Bill Raney. The show will air on the statewide Library Commission Network on Monday, December 8 at 11:00 a.m., 5:00 p.m. and again at 11:00 p.m. It will also air on Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. and the following Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The show will continue to air on Mondays at these same time slots for the duration of this year’s season.

Senator Jay Rockefeller has appointed Rochelle S. Goodwin to head his state operations.  Known as “Rocky”, she succeeds Lou Ann Johnson who retired after working for Rockefeller for 28 years.
           
As a state director, Rocky will work out of the Senator’s Charleston office and will also oversee operations in the Martinsburg, Fairmont and Beckley offices.
           
Rocky is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Marietta College and the WVU College of Law.  Before joining the Rockefeller staff she worked for Legal Aid and is married to Carte Goodwin, legal counsel to Governor Manchin.

CHARLESTON – Miners and managers throughout West Virginia’s coal industry  today welcomed a long-awaited federal rule that promises to end costly litigation blamed for slowing permit approvals for mining operations, reducing coal production and stifling employment.

 

“Far from the ‘giveaway’ to the coal industry as it is characterized by some anti-coal extremists, the new rules actually tighten regulations relating to stream protections under the Buffer Zone Rule,” said West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney.  

 “This new rule is the product of four years of public hearings and environmental analysis by multiple federal agencies,” Raney said.

Raney said the rule change provides a clarity and transparency to the rule that was lacking until now, which allowed numerous lawsuits to move through the court system.

West Virginia Coal Association Vice President Chris Hamilton says the state's coal is helping to keep West Virginia economically afloat as most other states struggle financially during the current economic tumble.

Hamilton, a Wheeling native, predicts "moderate growth" for the coal industry in the future, and that Consol Energy will continue with plans for a coal to liquid plant - which he hopes still will be built in Marshall County.

A Charleston Gazette article about a poll by the Civil Society on the future of coal-fired electric plants suggests that West Virginia's residents may potentially oppose new facilities. 

It would be easy to dismiss the poll results as biased, particularly since they are in line with the organization's position. Yet it is also likely that the answers may reflect a serious and all-too-common misunderstanding of the issues.

As a Princeton lecturer recently said in challenging listeners to raise the nation's energy IQ: "The problem with dealing with coal is that no one knows we use coal for electricity."

Look in your own newsroom and homes: each computer uses the equivalent of three pounds of coal a day. If you surveyed editors and reporters (or even science teachers) about how much coal they use, it is very likely that the most common answer would be, "We don't use coal anymore, we have electricity."  In fact, the average American probably has no idea that they use the equivalent of about 21 pounds of coal a day to generate the electricity they need just to go about their daily lives.

The WV Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety promulgated an emergency amendment to the administrative rules requiring gas operators to mark energized gas lines on mine property to bolster its position in ongoing litigation brought about by the gas industry.  The rules, as amended, would exempt “interstate” gas lines that are regulated by the federal DOT and the PSC’s pipeline safety division.  The rule change takes effect on January 1, 2009 and copies are available at the Association.

The following safety requirement involving mantrips was promulgated earlier this year by the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety and takes effect on January 1, 2009.
 
“By January 1, 2009, on working sections where personnel carriers are used to transport miners underground, the personnel carrier or combination of personnel carriers, shall be of sufficient capacity to accommodate the number of persons reasonably likely to be on the section and shall be available to transport persons to a safe area in the event of an emergency. “

WVCA is working with the WV Mine Safety & Technology Task Force and the Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) to establish a pilot program to use and properly test the use of proximity detection devices (PDD) on place-change continuous miners.  PDD’s are designed to provide warning and shutoff capabilities for machine operators and others working in close proximity to mining equipment.
 
A proposed work plan is being developed by the parties to define the scope of the study, its objectives for PDD reliability, availability, operational functionality, overall performance, as well as developing a set of criteria and standards by which to evaluate and measure the objectives. 

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) statistics for the week ending November 15th,  West Virginia ’s year-to-date production was up by 4.4% compared to the same period last year.  Southern West Virginia production was up by 6.9% while northern WV production was 2.1% less.   West Virginia ’s production numbers for the 52 weeks ending on 11/15 were similar.  
 
EIA also reported that metallurgical exports for this past September were 73.7% ahead of September 2007 (4.7M  v. 2.7M) and steam coal exports were 80% more (3.8M v.  2.1M).  Compared to last year, the January-to-September metallurgical tonnages reflect a 35.1% increase (32.2M v. 23.9M) and the steam tonnages are 48.8% more (26.5M v. 17.8M).  Imports were down by more than 15% for September and 8% for the year-to-date through September.

On Tuesday, the Kanawha County Commission approved the expenditure of $40,000 from its severance tax receipts for the extension of the public water system from adjacent  Lincoln  County to the  Coal River area of  Kanawha  County .  This was the latest of a long list of projects the Commission had supported with their severance tax receipts.  The list of projects is available from the Association.

Jim Magro of St. Clairsville will be recognized as the  Upper  Ohio  Valley ’s first Distinguished Eagle Scout on December 4 during a special dinner at Wilson Lodge,  Oglebay  Park .