The West Virginia Eleventh Annual CEDAR Golf Classic will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at the Twisted Gun Golf Course in Wharncliffe, West Virginia. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. with golf beginning at 10 a.m. promptly. Contact Bud Clapp at bud.clapp@nscorp.com for more information.

The WV Coal Mining Institute, the WVCA and the Central Appalachian Section of SME will be held at the Stonewall Jackson Resort May 3-5, 2012. Registration information was sent out previously via e-mail with detailed information. If you did not receive please let us know and it will be resent.

(Appeared in Daily Mail and other newspapers)

DC Federal Court Decision on Spruce is Critical First Step in Reining in Out-of-Control EPA

Decision confirms EPA has overstepped its authority and supports need for HR 2018

By Bill Raney, president

West Virginia Coal Association

There is no doubt about it, this past Friday’s decision in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia taking EPA to task for overstepping its authority with its veto of the Spruce Mine permit in Logan is a major victory for West Virginia’s 63,000 coal mining families and for the state as a whole. It is a critical first step in reining-in an increasingly radicalized, out-of-control agency, but it is only a first step.

In her decision, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson left little doubt EPA’s action is a clear abrogation of the Congressional limits set for the agency in its relationship with other agencies, “‘EPA’s position is that 404(c) grants it plenary authority to unilaterally modify or revoke a permit that has been duly issued by the Corps… This is a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself when there is absolutely no mention of it in the statute,” Jackson wrote.

Twice recently, the Supreme Court has curbed the EPA

By: Hoppy Kercheval

The Environmental Protection Agency, under President Obama's appointee, Lisa Jackson, has stretched its power to carry out an ideological mission.

Here's hoping a couple of surprising court decisions will temper the agency's zeal.

Higher electricity prices will most affect those who can least afford them

By Matt Patterson

The Washington Times

“If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

-Candidate Barack Obama, 2008.

Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned. This week, the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency released a set of proposed rules designed to target greenhouse gas emissions. If enacted, these rules would virtually destroy the coal industry - just as President Obama once promised he would do.