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Perhaps the most striking feature of the $1.83 billion Longview power plant being built here is its configuration.

Situated on 272 rolling acres about eight miles north of Morgantown, the plant is like an octopus. It will draw water from the Monongahela River, about a mile to the east. A Mepco Inc. mine will feed it coal from the Sewickley seam via a 4 1/2-mile-long overland conveyor belt from the northwest. It will connect to the power grid at an Allegheny Energy substation to the northeast. And vehicles access the site using Fort Martin Road to the south.

After Michael Morris met with the West Virginia Coal Association's directors at The Greenbrier last Thursday, I asked him what his message was.

"Collectively we have an educational challenge to help the body politic understand that coal has to play in the message for cost-effective electricity necessary to fuel economic growth," said Morris, who is American Electric Power's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "It's probably the same message President Bush made" at the association's meeting earlier the same day, he said.

Recently, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, proclaimed that "coal makes us sick ... It's global warming. It's ruining our country. It's ruining the world. We've got to stop using fossil fuel." Never to be outdone, a few days ago, Al Gore served a double helping of silliness when he pronounced that we must cease using fossil fuels within 10 years.

It makes one wonder if the initial drafts of Gore's slick PowerPoint presentations aren't written in crayon. Gore's childish naivete and dismissive refusal to consider the practical effects of his plans suggest fuzzy thinking at best.

BUSH: Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Thank you for your warm introduction. I have come to know your state very well. I've spent a lot of quality time here. I love its beauty, and I love its people. And I thank you for your warm greeting, and I'm proud to be here in Greenbrier.

President Bush spoke before the West Virginia Coal Association this morning.

"This is a challenging time, not the first time we've been through challenging times," said President Bush.

"In the second quarter, the economy grew at a rate of 1.9%. Not as good as we'd like it to be, but there were predictions that the economy would shrink this quarter, not grow. But, in fact, the opposite has happened," said Bush.

CONSOL Energy Inc. announced today plans to build an $800 million coal gasification plant near Wheeling, but details of state financial aide and a greenhouse gas "management strategy" for the project were not immediately clear.

CONSOL said the project would be a joint venture with Houston-based Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. through a new firm called Appalachia Fuel LLC.

Make Your Reservations Now

The Greater Bluefield Area is a beautiful, mountainous community, which crosses state lines along the border of southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. Located in the mountains along the foothills of one of the most picturesque mountain valley settings to be found anywhere, the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Bluefield Coal Symposium with the theme Coal Mine Safety: The Road to Zero Harm.

For two days, August 26 and 27, the Bluefield Coal Symposium will address providing greater safety and increased productivity. There are four main reasons to attend:

• Hear four coal operator CEOs, as well as the heads of MSHA and NIOSH, all in one location.
• Attend four educational sessions on the most timely and pressing issues affecting day-to-day coal mining safety.
• See state-of-the-art displays of mining equipment and supplies designed for greater safety.
• Network with peers, as well as with leading manufacturers and suppliers.

Register today by calling 304-327-7184. Come to Bluefield, West Virginia, “Nature’s Air-Conditioned City.”

The last day of the Friends of Coal Auto Fair was one of awards, sunshine and overall good times for everyone involved. The fair wrapped up its fifth annual three-day run at the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA’s Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex with more opportunities to check out the show cars and carnival or to take part in the all-denominations church service.

Thousands turn out for concert, fireworks.
Friday, the Friends of Coal Auto Fair boomed.
Saturday, it exploded.
Tens of thousands of people flooded the Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex Saturday evening. The evening featured country music legend Randy Travis, who launched his new CD, “Around the Bend.”

Yellow- and black-striped parachutes dotted the sky around Raleigh County Memorial Airport as members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights tandem team jumped with three people from local businesses Friday.

July 11, 2008-- The TVMI Everett Thompson Memorial Golf Outing is fast approaching. They still need hole sponsors and door prizes and also still have room for a few more teams.

Contact Andy Ashurst at: andy.ashurst@masseyenergyco.com for more information

July 11, 2008-- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has published proposed revisions to the state’s environmental rules and regulations for public review and comment. The comment periods for the various changes close at various times in August. The revisions will ultimately be reviewed by the West Virginia Legislature in the 2009 Regular Session. 

To receive a copy of the proposed changes to the Surface Mining & Reclamation Rule (38 CSR 2), Coal Mining NPDES Rule (47 CSR 30) and State Water Quality Standards Rule (47 CSR 2), contact jbostic@wvcoal.com

Changes to the other state environmental rules are available on WV DEP’s website http://www.wvdep.org/item.cfm?ssid=24&ss1id=975

July 11, 2008-- The Association is in the process of re-vamping its electronic mailing list for environmental issues.  Please reply to jbostic@wvcoal.com with a list of e-mail addresses for those within your organization that would like to receive e-mails on environmental issues of interest.

July 11, 2008-- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has issued a revised section 401 certification for the Corps of Engineers’ programmatic nationwide permits for coal mining. The Corps programmatically reissued NPW 21 for surface coal mining activities in March of 2007. At the same time, two new NWPs for mining activities were promulgated:  NWP 49 for coal remining activities and NWP 50 for underground mining activities. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, individual states can certify, deny or certify with conditions any programmatic NWP issued by the Corps.  The comment period on the newly-issued certification of NWPs 21, 49 and 50 closes on August 6, 2008.

To receive a copy of the proposed certification package contact jbostic@wvcoal.com

July 11, 2008-- Association Chairman Andrew Jordon joined NMA Chairman and Foundation Coal CEO Jim Roberts, Consol Energy CEO Brett Harvey, and US Steel's President for a meeting with Republican Presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Following the meeting Consol Energy's Pete Lilly, Tom Hoffman and Steve Winberg took McCain on a tour of their research facilities in South Park, PA.  WVCA President Bill Raney and WVCA Senior VP Chris Hamilton accompanied Andrew on the visit and met with Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain privately to discuss the future and challenges facing West Virginia’s coal industry.

The visit is described in the following article. 

July 11, 2008-- The Annual Meeting at The Greenbrier is shaping up to be another great weekend with new WVU Interim President Peter Magrath and Mike Morris with AEP visiting with the Board and with the membership at the Thursday evening Reception and Casino.

Saturday’s membership meeting will host Jim Boyd with the John T. Boyd Company discussing coal markets, Hal Quinn with NMA talking about national issues relating to coal and Randy Huffman, newly named Secretary of WV DEP.

From the Membership Meeting we will go into the Annual Chairman’s Brunch with guest speaker Homer Hickam, one of the original Rocket Boys and author of the newly released “Red Helmet”.

The weekend will wrap up on Saturday evening with the annual banquet and entertainment by PURE GOLD out of the Pittsburgh area.

July 11, 2008-- Final touches are being put on the WV Coal supplement to the State Journal.  The 32-page publication will present new Coal Facts data for calendar year 2007 as well as a variety of articles dealing with issues surrounding today's industry.  The annual issue has been overwhelmingly supported by the members of the Association.  It will be published during the last week of July.