By Taylor Kuykendall, Reporter - email

West Virginia's coal industry is hoping federal coal regulators will have guidelines for approving more extended-face, or deep-cut, coal mining plans as soon as spring.

West Virginia Coal Association Vice President Chris Hamilton has been advocating the use of remotely operated continuous miners with a face operation as far away as 40 feet. Though most machinery is designed to operate at that distance, Hamilton said, approval for deeper cuts have not been approved often.

U.S. Department of Labor

To the Mining Community:

Mine Safety and Health Administration 1100 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22209-3939

Thirty seven miners died in work-related accidents at the nation's mines in 2011. There were 21 coal mining and 16 metal/nonmetal mining fatalities last year, compared with 48 and 23, respectively, in 2010, making 2011 the year with the second-lowest number of mining deaths since statistics were first recorded in 1910.

CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Coal Association is hosting the 39th Annual West Virginia Coal Mining Symposium this week in Charleston. The event will be held February 1-3 and feature presentations on coal mine health and safety, regulatory issues, new technologies and coal’s role in our state’s economy, both today and in the future.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Sen. Joe Manchin will serve as keynote speakers on Thursday and Friday respectively. Federal Miner Health and Safety Administration Director Joe Main will also address the event on Thursday.  A full schedule of events is attached to this release.

The Mountaineer Guardian Awards for excellence in safety will be presented at lunch on Thursday and the Reclamation Awards will be announced at lunch on Friday.

The event has rapidly grown to become one of the major events on the annual events schedule in West Virginia. More than 800 people have pre-registered this year.

By Phil Kabler

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Barring some last-minute changes of heart leading up to the midnight filing deadline earlier today, no less than 18 members of the House of Delegates will have opted not to seek reelection.

That includes some long-serving members including former Finance Chairman Harold Michael, D-Hardy; Scott Varner, D-Marshall; John Doyle, D-Jefferson, and Virginia Mahan, D-Summers, who alone have a combined 82 years of legislative service.
(That's also counting Delegates Tim Ennis, D-Brooke, and Steven Kominar, D-Mingo, who stepped down earlier this month to become, respectively, a county commissioner, and the director of the Mingo County Development Authority.)

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — FirstEnergy Corp. said Thursday that new environmental regulations led to a decision to shut down six older, coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, affecting more than 500 employees.

The plants, which are in Cleveland, Ashtabula, Oregon and Eastlake in Ohio, Adrian, Pa. and Williamsport, Md., will be retired by Sept. 1. They have generated about 10 percent of the electricity produced by FirstEnergy over the last three years, the company said.

In a statement James Lash, head of the company's generation unit, indicated that a review of the company's coal-fired plants determined it would not be cost-effective to get the older ones into compliance with environmental regulations the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in December