July 7, 2009 · In response to an anti-mountaintop removal bill sponsored by a Tennessee senator, Coal-Mac Inc. is advising employees to cancel any vacations scheduled to Tennessee.

The company sent a letter to four Tennessee Chamber of Commerce offices, saying, “if you want our industry’s business, we suggest you let your representatives know that the industry they are trying to destroy is a major source of your tourism money.” Letter (pdf) 

Coal-Mac Human Resources Manager Richie Phillips sent the letter.

"We’re not bullies," he said. "The only thing that we want to do is work and make a living and support our families."

The letter also said that Lone Mountain Processing and Cumberland River Resources, two other out-of-state subsidiary companies, have cancelled their annual company picnics to Dollywood this year.

Coal-Mac says this boycott will cost the region more than 2,340 visitors.

COAL-MAC, INC.
PO Box 1050
Holden, WV 25625
304-792-8433

July 6, 2009

VIA Email

Brenda McCroskey, Chief Executive Officer (bmccroskey@scoc.org)
Pigeon Forge Chamber of Commerce (pifchamber@kmsfia.com)
Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce, Vicki Simms, Executive Director (vickis@gatlinburg.com)
Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Deborah K. Woolley, President (deb.woolley@tnchamber.org)

RE: Tennessee Tourism from Kentukcy, West Virgina, and Virginia

On June 25, 2009, several of our employees attended a Senate subcommittee hearing on “The Impacts of Mountaintop Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia”, a bill introduced by Senator Cardin and Senator Alexander from Tennessee. Paul Sloan, Deputy Commissioner from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation was one of the panel witnesses promoting the end of our industry.

I want you to know that approximately 80% of our 300 employees usually travel monthly to your state for entertainment, shopping, and recreation. We have informed our employees of your representative’s position on this issue and asked them to travel within our states for their entertainment, shopping and recreation. Our two sister companies in Virginia and Kentucky have canceled their annual company picnics at Dollywood this year (780 employees and approximately 2,340 family members). We have also emailed other industry groups in our three states notifying them about the position your representatives have taken against our industry.

If you want our industry’s business, we suggest you let your representatives know that the industry they are trying to destroy is a major source of your tourism money.

Richard K. Phillips
Human Resources Manager

RKP/gbr

This letter was published in yesterday’s Charleston Daily Mail in response to Ken Ward’s article in Sunday’s Gazette Mail.

Buried deep in Ken Ward's article, "Coal costs outweigh benefits, WVU study finds" in the Sunday Gazette-Mail is a disclaimer directly from the study's author, Michael Hendryx, that pretty well says it all.

I quote from the article: "Despite the significant associations between coal mining activity and both socio-economic disadvantage and premature mortality, it cannot be stated with certainty that coal mining causes these problems."

You had to read the entire article to find this disclaimer and I doubt very many read that far. 

The sixth Annual Friends of Coal Auto Fair at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex in Beckley is set for July 17-19.  This unique event allows our industry to promote coal mining and clean coal technology to the general public in a positive manner and would not be possible with the contributions of the member companies.
           
One hundred percent (100%) of the proceeds go directly toward maintaining the complex grounds, equipment and purchasing supplies for the activities held at the Sport Complex.

A US Senate hearing on mountaintop mining is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. this Thursday, June 25 in Washington DC.  The Mountaintop Mining Coalition and Citizens for Coal are joining forces to provide a presence in Washington during the hearing.

Several buses are being chartered to leave from Logan and Charleston to transport anyone interested in attending the hearing.  The buses will leave the Fountainplace Mall in Logan at 6:00 a.m. and will travel to the WVCA offices in Northgate Business Park in Charleston where they will pick up additional passengers at around 7:00 am.  The buses will then travel to Washington DC, arriving at Union Station at approximately 2:00 p.m.
 
Those attending the hearing will have some time at Union Station to eat and get in a bit of sight-seeing prior to attending the hearing in the Dirksen Building, Rm. 406.

If you are interested in attending this event Thursday please give us a call. If you have any questions of need additional information, please contact T.L. Headley at 304-342-4153 or by email at theadley@wvcoal.com or chamilton@wvcoal.com.
 
We urge you to contact us by noon, Wednesday to reserve your spot on the bus. Attending this hearing is vital to our industry’s future in Appalachia.

...

An oversight hearing on mountaintop mining is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. next Thursday, June 25 in Washington DC before the Wildlife Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee of the US Senate. The hearing is titled: “The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia ” and will entail two separate panels of witnesses.  The first panel will feature officials from EPA and the second panel will be comprised of a State Environmental official, a scientist with expertise in water quality impacts of mtm, a spokesperson from a community affected by mtm, and a local stakeholder.

Given the Senators behind the scheduling of this hearing, it appears that the hearing is designed to provide those opposing mtm, and who are desirous to see federal legislation to restrict this form of mining, with an opportunity to tell their story and influence the media.

The Coalition on MTM is planning to attend the hearing to show interest and to have a presence as the MTM debate begins before Congress.  Several buses are being chartered to leave from Logan and Charleston to transport anyone interested in attending the hearing.  It is doubtful that members of the Coalition will be permitted the opportunity to speak during the actual hearing but it is likely the event will attract major media sources that will look for miners and their families for comment. Toward this end we believe that it is important to be present and accounted for.

If you are interested in attending this event next Thursday please give us a call.  Additional information will be forthcoming.  In the meantime, if you have any questions of need additional information, please reply to this message or call one of us at 304-342-4153.  
 

The president of the West Virginia Coal Association visited St. Francis Elementary school in Beckley.

Raney spoke with third graders as part of a Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary project called Coal in the Classroom. St. Francis was the first school to adopt the curriculum but it’s expected to expand to the public school system this fall.

The fifth and final Coal in the Classroom session wrapped up on Wednesday.

Now, Morgan Hylton says she has a better understanding of what her dad does for a living.

“My dad is an above ground miner,” Hylton said. “Learn they burn coal to make electricity if we didn’t have it we wouldn’t be able to have a lot of stuff.”

Gage Blankenship says he also learned something about his family. He says his dad, uncle and grandfather work for the coal industry.

“It’s fun to learn about what they do,” Blankenship said.

For the past five weeks, the children have heard 1-hour presentations on the geographical location of coal in the US, surface mining, underground mining, and electricity.

Yesterday, West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney talked about the jobs coal provides to state residents.

 “They had an intense interest in everything that was going on,” Raney said.

 “They were remarkably knowledgable about all aspects of the coal industry and how really important it is to their everyday life and how important electricity is.”

In the hallway after he finished speaking with the kids, Raney criticized the environmental activists and their efforts to stop mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. Last weekend 17 protesters were arrested at three mining stes across Southern West Virginia.

“I don’t understand why any human being wants to try to take the job of another human being particularly in today’s economy,” he said.

In light of the protests, he says the classroom program is vital.

“It’s critical they learn about the environment, it’s critical they learn about the industry they learn about the professionalism that the industry operates under,” he said.

The program is scheduled to start at Stratton Elementary in Beckley this fall, but Regina Fairchild, chairwoman of Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary, says several schools in the region have requested the program.

“Obviously our goal, even with the auxiliary, is not to just stay in Raleigh County,” she said. “We want to increase it to every county throughout West Virginia.

However, to make that happen, Fairchild says the project needs more volunteers and more ladies auxiliary chapters.

She’s also looking for help with upcoming projects such as Mr. Coal …

“We are passionate about our Mr. Coal which is a stuffed dog, it’s like a lab,” she said. “It’s a real soft plush little animal that we are giving to all pre-schools, nurseries, the elderly.”

“We want to let the community and the area know that the people of coal care.

Other projects include the giving hearts program which offers food and help to the needy as well as a coal closet. The closet is a place where members can donate furniture and clothes to the less fortunate.

There is also a proposed Friends of Coal vanity license plate. Fairchild says the Raleigh County Vocational Center created the design for a vanity plate in order to raise money for the state

She says that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The ladies are also organizing the Junior Friends of Coal as well. The first meeting is tonight at Mabscott Elementary.

Also, the ladies will help to wrap up the Coal in the Classroom program with a field trip to the exhibition coal mine in Beckley. They also plan to visit Terex, a company in Beckley that manufactures high-wall miners.

Assistant Superintendent of Raleigh County Schools Janet Lilly was scheduled to speak with Raney yesterday but was a no-show. Lilly did not immediately return our calls for comment.

The sixth Annual Friends of Coal Auto Fair at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex in Beckley is set for July 17-19.  This unique event allows our industry to promote coal mining and clean coal technology to the general public in a positive manner and would not be possible with the contributions of the member companies.

In late May, the Association filed comments with the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety & Training (OMHS&T) and the Secretary of State’s Office regarding the emergency rules that establish training requirements for individuals working aboard coal barges.  The Association’s comments questioned the authority of the OMHS&T Director’s authority to issues legislative rules, particularly on an emergency basis.  That authority is usually exercised by the WV Board of Coal Mine Health & Safety, as required by state law.  
 

On May 28th, DEP Secretary Randy Huffman distributed the Department’s portion of the study mandated by Senate Concurrent Resolution-15, which required DEP to identify the impact of coal slurry injection on ground and surface water in the state. While the study found no evidence that coal slurry injection, by itself, affected surface water quality, Huffman issued a two-year moratorium on the approval of coal slurry injection into mine voids that had not previously been approved. “None of the sites chosen for the hydrologic assessment showed water quality impacts to surface waters caused by coal slurry injection alone,” Huffman said. “However, the study did point out areas where improvements can be made in the Underground Injection Program. While the Department of Health and Human Resources conducts its portion of the study, we will be making changes to our permitting program and gathering more information from the operators.” In addition to the moratorium, the study calls for recommendations such as requiring site-specific groundwater monitoring during the injection process, requiring a full baseline survey for organic constituents and heavy metals for all nearby surface and groundwater resources for all new permits and monitoring wells within a half mile of the mine pools receiving injection. The full study is available at  http://www.wvdep.org/item.cfm?ssid=9&ss1id=989.

On May 27th, Governor Manchin announced the appointment of Jim Mullins, who is retired from the Mingo Logan Coal Complex, to the three-member Board of Appeals, as the industry representative.  Jim is a mining engineering graduate of Virginia Tech and lives in Logan.  He replaces Rick Dillon, who resigned his Board position when he began working with TVA several months ago.    Several appeal cases have been delayed as a result of the vacancy. 

The Director of the Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training (OMHS&T) has proposed a series of amendments and new requirements to Title 56, Series 3 Rules Governing Those Employed in and Around Surface Mines in West Virginia. The rules are available on the agency’s homepage at  http://www.wvminesafety.org. Copies are also available at the Association and can be electronically forwarded.   The amendments are voluminous and primarily address the following sections:  section 359-388 and section 15 relating to blasting operations; section 9 relating to instruction of employees; section 10 relating to daily inspections;  section 13 relating to high wall safety & dump points; section 17 relating to haulage roadways & vehicles and the certification of coal truck drivers; section 19 (new) relating to high wall mining; section 21 (new) relating to steep slope safeguards; and, section 48 relating to mine mapping.  A comment period runs through July 15th 2009 and a public hearing is set for 9am on July 2 at the Chief Logan Lodge and Conference Center in Logan. 

SB 1011 pertaining to Master Land Use Plans and the Office of Coalfield and Community Development, aka “the mountaintop mining bill”, was passed by the Legislature last week during the Special Session that ended on Wednesday.  It requires all county commissions or other county government entities, in counties where surface mining exists or is proposed, to develop a county wide, master land use plan that will provide for a higher and better land use following mining.  Prospective surface mine operators will be required to comport post-mine land uses to those specified in the approved county plan with limited exceptions.  The bill also reinvigorates the Coalfield Economic and Community Development Office and assigns it the authority for working with the counties and approving the counties’ plans.  Detailed information regarding the provisions of this bill will be distributed as soon as they are complete. 

In a similar action last week, 2nd District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito joined eleven of her fellow Congressmen in writing EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Corps of Engineers’ Commander Lieutenant General Van Antwerp asking for definitive action on the permits pending throughout West Virginia.  Congresswoman Capito pointed out the economic significance of the coal industry and the devastating impact the federal agency-generated uncertainty was having on West Virginia’s overall economy.

Late last month, West Virginia Coal joined with the coal associations in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia and the National Mining Association in a letter to our respective  congressional delegations asking them to assist in “fixing a regulatory system that is frustrating rather than promoting job creation, economic development and energy independence” by EPA’s institution of a re-review of more than 200 permits that are “caught in a regulatory black hole.”  The letter noted that while EPA has made assurances over the last several weeks that 42 permits would be issued, “we have seen no evidence of any change.”  In effect, the de facto moratorium on permits that commenced on March 4 continues without any meaningful progress.  The letter was asking for congressional “assistance in fixing a regulatory system that will only continue to crush the investments, jobs and opportunities for the coal community.”

Shawn Bennett of Ohio Coal provided the following account of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s visit to Columbus last Wednesday.  Administrator Jackson was at the Ohio Statehouse this morning for a press conference to discuss clean diesel grants for retrofitted construction and transit equipment.  In the crowd were probably around 7 protesters of Mountaintop removal.  From what I could tell they were from WV, I saw a shirt with a 304 area code.  They were in the background of Administrators speech holding signs saying “protect the environment not the coal industry” and so on.  At the end of her speech she opened the forum for Q and A.  One of the protesters asked a question regarding the EPA’s position on mountaintop removal.  Her answer was that the Obama Administration has decided to take a closer look at mountaintop removal.  She said there were 48 permits that were pulled and there are only 6 they gives them concern.  The 6 permits that are still being reviewed are being looked at due to the amount of stream length that is affected. 

West Virginia’s 3rd District Congressman Nick Joe Rahall is actively pursuing answers in the permitting dilemma being created by the federal agencies that are affecting both existing and new operations for southern West Virginia.  We understand he wants resolution of the conflicting information being provided by the different agencies relative to their requests for additional information and the delays which continue to create uncertainty.  EPA has told him they do not have a problem with a number of permits on the original list of 48, but the subsequent signals being received by the applicants, in the field, are seemingly different (see story below).  Hopefully, he will be able to get “to the bottom” of this with reliable, consistent answers so permits can, once again, be issued in West Virginia and keep our miners working in this difficult economic time.  

On Friday, May 29th, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Motion for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc with four judges agreeing to deny and three judges dissenting.  It is interesting to read the dissenting opinions of the three judges who wanted to rehear the case.   Copies of the order and supplemental opinions are available at the Association.  We understand that Joe Lovett, filed for a stay of this decision on Friday afternoon so that he can pursue an appeal to the US Supreme Court. 

This Wednesday, June 10th, the Logan County Chamber of Commerce will convene business, community and political leaders from across southern West Virginia at a time when the global economy is in shambles and the federal regulations for the coal industry are unclear.  The intent of these leaders is to stay a step ahead and combine forces.   Gary White, the President and CEO of International Resource Partners, says he fears what he sees in the short term.  "There are some immediate problems, the shaky economy and an uncertain future, when it comes to regulating mountaintop mining permits.”  "We are seeing real effects," Greg Wooten of Natural Resource Partners said. "People are being laid off as we do this interview, and people are about to be laid off that don't know it."  So as the industry members watch what's happening in Detroit with the auto industry, they're teaming up with county leaders to show the public it's more than just mining.  The Regional Economic Forum will be held on Wednesday, June 10th, at the Earl Ray Tomblin Convention Center at Chief Logan State Park, near Logan, beginning at 9:00 a.m.  ICG Senior Vice President for Mining Services, Gene Kitts, will be joined by Christine Risch, the Director of Research for Marshall University’s Center for Business and Economic Research.  The Forum will conclude with lunch.