Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Friends of Coal will be on hand for the City of Logan’s annual Independence Day Freedom Festival. We would like to thank Mayor Serafino Noletti and the good folks of the City of Logan and Logan County for their support of the Friends of Coal.

West Virginia Coal Association/Friends of Coal banners were placed across the streets hosting the festival and more than 50 city merchants were placing Friends of Coal signs in their windows for the weekend celebration. Coal truly is the foundation of our state’s economy and our nation’s independence. It has provided the fuel that won our nation’s wars and powered the greatest economy in the world.

Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Friends of Coal continue their summer outreach program through the month of July.  The following are some of the events currently scheduled. More are being added each day.

·         (July 9) West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney will speak to the Martinsburg Chamber of Commerce.

·         (July 17) The Friends of Coal Auto Fair in Beckley and the Mark Plants’ Football Camp in Charleston.

·         (August 13-20) We are finalizing our participation schedule for this year’s State Fair of West Virginia in Lewisburg.

If you would like to schedule a representative of the Friends of Coal or the West Virginia Coal Association for your event, please contact us at 304.342.4153. Our schedules are filling fast and we very much want to meet with your group to provide an accurate portrait of our state’s coal industry.

The 7th Annual Friends of Coal Auto Fair is set for July 16 – 18 at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex in Beckley, WV.  Friday, July 16 will begin the Fair with the Cruise-In to uptown Beckley for the Renaissance Car Show and live entertainment by former American Idol contestant and Beckley native, Robbie Carrico. 

Saturday will have the Live in Concert by The Charlie Daniels Band and Taylor Made, with special appearances by The Gold Knights Army Parachute Team and FOC spokesmen Coach Nehlen, Coach Pruett and Bass Master Jeremy Starks.  Tickets ($15.00 advance & $20.00 day of show) for the Concert will go on sale May 1st at select WV & VA Marquee Cinemas and the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA.  

The Kanawha Valley Mining Institute’s 21st Hatfield Scramble will be held Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at the Brier Patch Golf Course in Beckley, WV.

Hole Sponsorships and golf registration can be obtained by the web site:  http://www.kvmi.org/Registration.html

This is the primary means for the KVMI to continue to sponsor its scholarship program for deserving students and is the most important reason for sponsorship of this golfing event.

Cost Families $1,042 per Year, Wealthiest Americans to Benefit

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham may no longer claim allegiance to the climate bill currently being debated in the Senate, but according to a new independent analysis released this week, the cap-and-trade proposal being advanced by Senators Kerry and Lieberman does no better by the American consumer than previous iterations of the bill that bore his name.

In an effort to better understand the broad consequences of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act on the U.S. economy, the Institute for Energy Research commissioned Chamberlain Economics, L.L.C to perform an economic and distributional analysis of cap-and-trade portion of the proposal.

The following represent some of the study’s major findings:

• The American Power Act would reduce U.S. employment by roughly 522,000 jobs in 2015, rising to over 5.1 million jobs by 2050.
• Households would face a gross annual burden of $125.9 billion per year or $1,042 per household, with costs disproportionately borne by low-income households.
• On a net basis, the top income quintile will benefit financially, redistributing to these households roughly $12.3 billion per year from the bottom 80 percent of earners.
• Households over age 75 bear the largest burden at 2.3 percent of income, followed by households aged 65-74 and under age 25 at 2.1 percent. By contrast, the nation’s highest-earning households between age 45 and 54 years would bear the smallest percentage burden of just 1.5 percent.
• Contrary to the legislation’s stated goal of reducing price volatility by excluding petroleum refiners from quarterly auctions, the Kerry-Lieberman bill is likely to significantly increase allowance price volatility from quarter to quarter, compared to an ordinary auction in which all covered industries bid for allowances.