A very special episode of The Coal Seam television show is now airing. The show was filmed on location at the July Coal Rally in Pittsburgh. The show includes vignettes of the rally, which included Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin of West Virginia, Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor of Ohio.  Gov. John Kasich was also on hand via a video he sent.  WVCA President Bill Raney and Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton also addressed the crowd of thousands of coal miners there to protest the EPA’s GHG regulations that are shutting down coal-fired power plants and killing thousands of jobs.

The episode will be broadcast through most of September.  It is available on the state Library Television Network as well as your local cable system’s public access channel. Locally it is on Suddenlink Channel 17

The on-line Friends of Coal petition to protect America’s coal jobs has already generated almost 9,000 comments through our convenient online tool.  The online tool allows you to file your comments calling on EPA to rescind its job-killing regulations that are halting the construction of new coal-fired power plants and essentially forcing the closure of existing plants.  The comments are sent directly to the EPA’s official e-mail address.

If you have not already done so, please visit the online petition and add your support. You can do so at www.friendsofcoal.org/soundoff.  Thanks for the tremendous effort so far and please have your family, friends and colleagues do it as soon as they can. 

By Paul Driessen

Global temperatures haven’t risen in 18 years. The nine years since a Category 3 hurricane or stronger hit the United States is the longest period since 1900.

Antarctic ice is at record highs. Arctic ice is rebounding. Sea levels are rising at less than a foot per century. Rains, floods and droughts are well within historic patterns.

By Paul Driessen

Global temperatures haven’t risen in 18 years. The nine years since a Category 3 hurricane or stronger hit the United States is the longest period since 1900.

Antarctic ice is at record highs. Arctic ice is rebounding. Sea levels are rising at less than a foot per century. Rains, floods and droughts are well within historic patterns.

Nevertheless, climate alarmists are wailing that “our planet’s actual survival is at risk.” Using executive fiats and regulations, President Obama is delaying the Keystone XL pipeline and blocking oil and gas drilling, while hisEnvironmental Protection Agencywages war on coal country workers and families.

The Friends of Coal’s educational and outreach efforts continue this week when the organization hosts a tour of area mining operations for students from Washington & Lee University of Virginia on Tuesday, September 2nd.

The group will be hosted by Board members Andrew Jordon, Ben Hatfield and Bill Raney who will take them to visit the Tyler-Morgan facility, which features not only examples of mining and reclamation but also has been incorporated into Joint Base West Virginia, a multi-model, multi-site training facility for the National Guard and other Department of Defense components.

This site continues to be a perfect example of the many wide and varied uses former mine sites – and even current operations – are being put to through effective partnerships between the industry, government and private enterprise.