At their annual meeting this past weekend the West Virginia Coal Association re-elected Andrew Jordon of Pritchard Mining Company to a second term as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pritchard Mining is located at Hansford, WV and has operations in Boone and Kanawha Counties.  As indicated by their unanimous election, the members of the Association are thrilled to have Jordon represent them and the coal industry for another year.

Jordon says he is honored to have the opportunity to continue the work that he started during his previous term as Chairman.

“I’m excited to carry on the things that were started this past year in the midst of constant scrutiny and backlash from those who oppose the coal industry,” stated Jordon.

Over 200 area youth between the ages of six and 16 will be at Laidley Field this Saturday, May 26, 2007 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to participate in the 12th Annual “Giving Back to the Community” Free Football Camp. Mark Mason, founder of the program, and a 1991 Marshall University defensive player of the year and former all-star linebacker for the Charleston Rocketts, will be directing the charitable football camp.
 
Mason says the purpose of the camp is to provide an opportunity for young people within the community, who may not have the resources, to attend an athletic camp focused on teaching values and providing counseling services.

Did you know that 99% of West Virginia electricity and more than half of American electricity is generated by coal produced in West Virginia? Or that every coal mining job generates between five and six other jobs in the local economy?
 
Last year West Virginia mines produced 158.8 million tons of coal, 2nd only to Wyoming. Of that coal 91.9 million tons were produced in underground mining operations, more than any other state in the U.S.

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Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her.

"This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at -- hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House."

Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk.

In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake.

He said he was told by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., that if he persisted with his plans on an energy measure, nothing he did in the future would clear the Senate Finance Committee, where Baucus is chairman.

Bunning, R-Ky., later added that this was communicated between the senators' staffs. And Bunning said he communicated to Baucus: "Stuff it."

Normally, the comments would have been available for anyone to hear at Bunning's Web site, where he posts recordings of his weekly press calls.

But the recording of Tuesday's call was edited, and the senator's comments about the threats were taken out.

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Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Lewis told ABC TV the coal industry still has a future, despite a global push towards other cleaner energy.

POUNDING MILL, Va. — Mark McCowan knew he had inhaled a lot of coal dust during 20 years of operating heavy equipment in underground mines in southwest Virginia.

But at 40 years old, he had no symptoms of disease, and a chest X-ray taken eight years earlier had shown nothing amiss.

Plus, a federal law enacted to eliminate coal workers' pneumoconiosis — black lung — had been in effect for more than 35 years.

Yet, after McCowan followed a friend's example and got a second chest X-ray in April 2005, he found he was another example that the nation's commitment to eliminating black lung has been imperfectly fulfilled.

With all the confusion surrounding activities and actions related to SCSR plans, installation and the receipt of ordered units from the manufacturers, we were concerned that members were feeling forced to purchase units that were different from the ones specified in their plans.  Many were concerned that diminished safety would result in having different brands of SCSR's within the same mine and would bring confusion, complicated training and reduced confidence.  Therefore, we suggest the following actions be taken:  Confirm your orders with your manufacturer/supplier and compile your documented communications with them relative to your plan and their estimates for delivery.  Include your history of contact with the supplier that demonstrates your pursuit of getting the units delivered by the dates specified in your plan (probably the dates were given to you by the supplier to begin with). 

Do not "run out" and purchase SCSR's that are different from your plan before calling the Association at 304-342-4153.  Considerable efforts are underway with discussions and conversations occurring among companies, agencies, manufacturers and suppliers in order to rectify the situation in ways that maximize safety and protection.  If you have any questions, please call the Association.

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The U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have issued joint guidance on implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Rapanos decision regarding jurisdictional waters under Section 404 of the Federal Clean Water Act.  The June 2006 Raponos decision questioned the agencies historical application of “waters of the United States” for Section 404 permitting purposes.  The new guidance establishes a two-part test to determine jurisdiction.  The Corps' new guidelines, which include a two-part test, try to meet the demands of Kennedy and the other four justices.

 

The test confirms the Corps' jurisdiction over traditional navigable waterways and extends 404 jurisdiction to include certain non-navigable waterways, including wetlands and permanent streams, which are tributaries to larger waterways.   The second test extends 404 jurisdiction to non-navigable waterways and wetlands that have a "nexus" to navigable waterways even if they are considered intermittent or ephemeral streams or if they are separated from permanent tributaries because of uplands, dikes or other land features.

The agencies have prepared several documents for use by regulatory staff and permittees.  Copies of these guidance documents are available on the National Mining Association’s website: http://www.nma.org/tmp/060607_epa.asp

WVCA’s Environmental-Technical Committee is reviewing the guidance and having discussions with the Corps in anticipation of an industry training session on jonal waters determinations.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Mine Safety and Health Administration
Technical Study Panel on the Utilization of Belt Air and the Composition and Fire Retardant Properties of Belt Materials in Underground Coal Mining
AGENCY: Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice informs interested persons of the fourth meeting of the Technical Study Panel (Panel) on the Utilization of Belt Air and the Composition and Fire Retardant Properties of Belt Materials in Underground Coal Mining. The public is invited to attend.

http://www.msha.gov/REGS/FEDREG/NOTICES/2007MISC/07-2811.asp

The third Annual July 20-22 Auto Fair is already going to be bigger and better than last years, as the crew in Beckley have already moved the concert to a larger field for Lonestar and Taylor Made.  See below Beckley Register-Herald article below. 

Please contact Jay Rist at the Raleigh County YMCA (304-252-0715) if you can support the event with platinum, gold sponsorships.

Friends of Coal concert moving to larger fields

Beckley Register-Herald - Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA CEO Jim Gilchrist says the anticipated turnout for the July 21 Friends of Coal Auto Fair concert, which will feature country music sensation Lonestar with local favorite Taylor Made, is rapidly increasing, so much so that event coordinators have decided to go to “Plan B.”
The new plan, Gilchrist said Tuesday morning at a meeting involving emergency agencies, calls for the concert, which will take place at the Y’s Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex, to move from the single field on which last year’s concert was held to two other fields at the complex.
“It will accommodate the stage better,” Gilchrist said. “Folks will be able to hear no matter where they are. We think this will be better for the people coming to the concert.”
With the change in concert location, comes additional logistical changes, Gilchrist told representatives from the West Virginia State Police, Civil Air Patrol, Beckley Fire Department, Raleigh County Community Action Association, Jan-Care Ambulance and the Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center.
Locations for VIP parking have been moved this year in order to accommodate the concert stage as well as transportation for event-goers.
In 2006, Gilchrist says six buses from Raleigh County Community Action Association bused attendees from various parking locations to the sports complex. This year, Gilchrist says, 16 buses will be in action.
Those buses will, for free, pick up fair-goers from different parking lots and drop each off the main gate.
All buses, Gilchrist says, will travel, in one direction, around the road circling the complex.
“Buses will go in one way and drop them (attendees) off at the gate,” Gilchrist said, adding there will be one way in and one way out, easing traffic problems. “Logistically, it will make things a lot better.”
Gilchrist said he is confident the changes made from last year’s event will help improve this year’s fair, which runs July 20-22.
“We’ve got the experts here,” Gilchrist said. “We’ve got all the agencies who do these things all the time. This is their livelihood.”
The planning group will meet every two weeks until the Friends of Coal Auto Fair.