The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced that the final rule on Rock Dust was published June 21 in the Federal Register on the maintenance of the incombustible content of rock dust.
The rulemaking can be viewed at
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pubreference/outputid2825.htm.
http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2011/NR110620.asp
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has appointed Anna Border to fulfill the remainder of her late husband’s term in office as the West Virginia House of Delegates representative for the ninth district, effective immediately.
“Anna has been her late husband’s personal confidant and partner during their 38 year marriage as well as his professional legislative assistant,” Tomblin said. “I am confident she will represent the people of Wirt and Wood counties with the same commitment her husband displayed throughout his twenty-one years of service.
Delegate Larry Border was first elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1990 to represent the citizens of Wood and Wirt counties. The West Virginia 9th District Republican Delegate Committee submitted Mrs. Border’s name along with two others as candidates to fulfill the unexpired term. Mrs. Border is a graduate of
Anna and her late husband have three children; Heather Border Mullens, Rebecca Border Dimit and Christopher Border.
The U. S. Supreme Court, in an 8-0 decision, reversed a lower court’s ruling permitting states and environmental groups to bring common law nuisance actions against utilities due to their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. American Electric Power Co. v.
In an opinion authored by Justice Ginsburg, the court held that Clean Air Act’s (CAA) delegation of authority to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate GHGs from utilities under section 111 effectively displaced the federal common law cause of action. NMA participated in the litigation as amicus curiae in support of the utilities.
On the issue of displacement, the court found that “[t]he critical point is that Congress delegated to EPA the decision whether and how to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants; the delegation is what displaces federal common law. Indeed, were EPA to decline to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions altogether at the conclusion of its ongoing § 7411 rulemaking, the federal courts would have no warrant to employ the federal common law of nuisance to upset the agency’s expert determination.” The court expressly declined to decide whether, even assuming no regulation under the CAA and therefore no displacement, a federal common law nuisance action actually exists against utilities due to their GHG emissions. Similarly, the court declined to answer this question for common law nuisance claims brought in state courts.
The important remaining issue is to what extent future congressional legislation divesting EPA’s authority under section 111 to regulate GHGs from utilities would impact the decision. More than likely, such congressional action would bar displacement as an effective defense and a judicial determination would have to be made whether a federal common law cause of action is viable. Currently, the EPA is scheduled by consent decree to propose GHG standards of performance for new and existing coal-fired utilities by Sept. 30, 2011.
The decision by American Electric Power Company to close three West Virginia power plants by 2014 will result in the loss of 242 jobs, according to sources at the utility. However the potential job loss due to these closures could number in the tens of thousands.
Using the estimated amount of coal that would have been burned at the closed power plants (16.8 million tons) calculate the tons of coal per mwh conversion from the Union of Concerned Scientists’ website as a base and dividing that by the amount of coal an average West Virginia coal miner produces each year (6,857 tons), then take the total amount of coal produced last year (144 million tons) and dividing it by the number of working coal miners in the state (21,000), the total job losses in the coal industry in West Virginia of approximately 1,575 mining jobs and 2,450 mining jobs regionally.
Using the economic multiplier of three derived from the WVU/MU Joint Study on the Economic Impact of Coal (2010) , and combining that with the 600 direct jobs lost expected at AEP (1,800 using a factor of three multiplier), we see a total potential job loss of 10,623 jobs regionally, with many of these coming in West Virginia as well.
In announcing the closure, AEP cited environmental regulations issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the cause of the impending closures.
PITTSBURGH, June 22nd, 2011 -- Lockheed Martin and Carroll Technologies Group have signed a distribution agreement for a new wireless, through-the-earth communications system designed specifically to help the mining industry improve post-accident emergency communications.
Under the agreement, Lockheed Martin will provide the technology and manufacturing of the MagneLink™ Magnetic Communication System (MCS), which delivers voice communication and texting to trapped miners during a disaster. Carroll Technologies Group, through its two operating subsidiaries – Carroll Engineering Co. and Delta Electric, Inc. – will act as the distributor, sales and service supplier of the system. “Lockheed Martin’s technology, paired with Carroll Technologies Group’s presence and experience in the mining industry, provides trapped miners the means to communicate with rescuers when no other form of contact is possible,” said Richard Holmberg, Lockheed Martin’s vice president who oversees the program. “It’s gratifying to apply our advanced communications and signal processing expertise in a new way to save lives.”