The Friends of Coal Soccer Complex at Trace Fork will be officially dedicated on March 25. It has been announced that the facility will be home to all of the University of Charleston’s Women’s Soccer home games and practices. In addition, the field has already been used by an estimated 800 kids between mid-January to the end of February.  Organizers say the facility is quickly getting booked up! For example the month of August already has nearly 2,300 kids registered to use the complex.

According to the EIA’s latest weekly report, coal production nationwide continues to steepen its decline, down 0.8 percent while West Virginia’s weekly production has dropped 1.0 percent for the year ending 2/26/12. Compare that to just last week when nationwide production was down 0.5 percent while West Virginia’s coal production was down 0.8 percent year over year and two weeks ago when demand was off just 0.3 percent nationally and 0.5 percent for West Virginia year over year.

Two factors are causing the decline, a drop in demand as the nation’s utilities work through stockpiles of coal left from a mild winter and for met coal due to the economic uncertainties around the world, as well as regulatory uncertainty caused by the EPA’s on-going assault on coal.

The West Virginia Coal Association and Friends of Coal web presence continues to expand. According to the latest reports, the Association website (www.wvcoal.com) saw 6,401 visits for the month of February, with 15,485 page views. Visitors to the site included people from 112 countries and approximately 74 percent were new visitors.

Meanwhile, the Friends of Coal website (www.friendsofcoal.org) saw 3,252 visits with 7,793 page views. This included visitors from 54 countries with approximately 79 percent being first-time visitors.

Planning is underway for this year’s WV Coal Association’s State Journal insert. This special publication will print in late-July. It is a great opportunity to get the message out that coal is and will remain the economic bedrock of the state’s economy. This past year’s edition included production, employment, coal severance data, membership profiles, editorial features and other key information.

The annual West Virginia coal industry section insert in the Charleston newspapers publishes this Sunday, March 4. As you are probably aware, the Charleston Gazette readers seldom hear the industry’s perspective of the issues confronting the state today.

This year’s edition will feature production and employment data, coal severance and taxation data, as well as articles and features on various coal-related topics.