According to the latest information from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, coal production in the United States fell by 400,000 tons for the week ending August 9 compared to the same time last year. Production for the week stood at 19.2 million tons compared to 19.6 million tons in 2013.

Coal production for the 52 weeks ending August 9 was also off by 1.6 percent, from 993 million tons in 2013 to 977 million tons this year.  This reduced production was reflected in the number of rail cars loaded, which fell from 6,060,769 cars loaded in 2013 to 5,996,869 cars in 2014.

A very special episode of The Coal Seam television show will begin airing next week. The show was filmed on location at this past month’s coal rally in Pittsburgh. The show will include 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.

Watch for the episode next week. It 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. In the Charleston area, it is on Suddenlink Channel 17.

The Friends of Coal petition to protect America’s coal jobs has already collected approximately 6,000 letters of support 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 letters are sent directly to the EPA’s official comments email address.

If you have not already done so, we ask that you visit the out online petition and add your support. You can do so at www.friendsofcoal.org/soundoff.  Please do it today – for all of us!

The Capito for Senate campaign will host a “Working for Jobs Rally” Tuesday, August 19, 2014 at Tamarack in Beckley. The rally will be held in Ballroom A from 2:30PM to 3:30PM.

Show your support for creating and keeping jobs in West Virginia and stand up to the policies and regulations put forth by the Obama Administration in their never ending War on Coal.

The West Virginia Coal Association was invited to Thursday’s meeting of the Kanawha County Commission to discuss the impact of the recent layoff announcements that could potentially impact as many as 1400 coal miners – many of them from Kanawha and surrounding counties.  

WVCA Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton and Vice President Jason Bostic met with the Commission, providing up-to-date information regarding the layoffs. Hamilton spoke about the issue at the regular Commission Meeting Thursday evening in Charleston.