Last week, the State of West Virginia joined several national groups in filing amicus briefs in the federal EPA’s appeal of a decision from Judge Amy Berman Jackson which invalidated the agency’s retroactive veto of Clean Water Act Section 404 permit issued to Mingo Logan Coal Company for its Spruce No. 1 mine. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the permit in 2007 and EPA revoked the permit in January 2011. Mingo-Logan challenged EPA’s revocation and in March 2012 Judge invalidated the veto action in its entirety. EPA has appealed Jackson’s decision to federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. For a copy of West Virginia’s amicus filing contact jbostic@wvcoal.com

On September 20, 2012 the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources published a report regarding the federal Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM) efforts to revise several federal mining regulations under the banner of a “Stream Protection Rule.” The revisions were undertaken by OSM in 2009 and sought to void a previous rulemaking effort which was completed in 2008 that revised the federal stream buffer zone regulations regarding mining activities in and around streams. The Natural Resources Committee began an oversight investigation of OSM’s actions up to and including the issuance of subpoenas for documents and to compel Congressional testimony from certain OSM officials. (continued)

The national tour bus for the “American Products, American Power” group rolled into Charleston last week on the latest leg of its tour across the country to raise awareness of the importance of America’s energy and manufacturing sectors to our economy.

The group visited the West Virginia Coal Association offices in Northgate Business Park, discussing the issues and filming an interview segment with WVCA President Bill Raney. Association staff signed the bus, joining the tens of thousands of others who have done so to show their support not only for our industry, but our nation’s industrial core, which faces similar threats from federal regulatory overreach. The bus will be delivered to Congress as a large petition supporting coal as the fuel of choice for America.

The grassroots support group, Friends and Families of Coal Miners, along with the Friends of Coal, The COALition for Romney, the Logan Coal Vendors Association and Citizens for Coal have scheduled additional coal rallies and events leading up to the November election.

The events so far scheduled include:

October 4, at 7 p.m. COAL FORUM AND RALLY at the Logan High School Little Theatre.

October 14, (time TBD) COAL FORUM AND RALLY at Lick Creek Park in Danville.

A group of coal miners, their families and friends are embarking tomorrow morning (Saturday, September 29th) for an interstate rally to support the coal industry at 10:00am in Lawrence County, Ohio. The miners will caravan from West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia to Lawrence County, stopping briefly in Charleston and Huntington to add folks to the caravan.

The group begins the day at 7 a.m. tomorrow in the Logan Wal-Mart parking lot off US 119 at the Fountainplace Mall. A rally and picnic in Ohio will follow a day of campaigning. If you are interested in going, please contact Shaun Adkins via the Miners for Romney Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/terry.headley1#!/events/143701149104754/