The Charleston-based firm of Arnett & Foster announced on August 1that it will merge with Toothman Rice, LLC a Clarksburg based company to form a new CPAfirm.  The new firm name will be Arnett Foster Toothman PLLC and willbecome one of the top 150 largest accounting firms in the United States. The new company will encompass six offices located in two states:  Charleston, Bridgeport, Morgantown, Buckhannon and Lewisburg,WV and Columbus, OH.

More than 2,000 gather to hear energy message.

BEALLSVILLE, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney believes a strong coal industry is key to a strong America.

During a campaign rally Tuesday at American Energy Corp.'s Century Mine, Romney said his administration's energy policy would differ from that of President Barack Obama. Romney said his administration would include coal, natural gas, oil, renewables and nuclear as part of an all-in energy portfolio.

"We have 250 years of coal, why in the heck wouldn't we use it?" Romney told a crowd of more than 2,000 coal miners and their families.

Posted on EMPOWERTEXANS by Dustin Matocha

Texas has again wona battle against the EPA thanks to a 5th U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals ruling. As a result, Texas cancontinue utilizing its flexible permitting program — a victory for the 10thamendment, and Texas’economy.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals ruled Monday the EPA overstepped itsbounds by prohibiting the State of Texasfrom utilizing its “flexible permitting program.” The programallowed refineries, power plants and other major industrial facilities toimplement their own pollution-control protocols, so long as their aggregateamount of emissions did not exceed levels set by the federal government.

Not good enough, said the ObamaAdministration. In typical disregard for the 10th Amendment, theyargued such policy gave “too much discretionarypower” to the director of the Texas Commission on EnvironmentalQuality.

CHARLESTON –When all you ever see in the media is the caricature presented by anti-coalextremists, it is easy to miss the great benefits that West Virginia, Kentuckyand Virginia have derived from mountaintop surface mining. When they actually seelook at the sites they soon begin to realize the great potential these siteshave for helping with economic diversification and development across thecoalfields.

Members of the Southern Legislative Conference Energy andEnvironmental Committee got just such an up-close view of surface coal miningduring a special tour of two area surface mines July 31.

The West Virginia Coal Association hosted thelegislators, who hailed from West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Virginia,North Carolina and even Canada, visiting the Pritchard Mining Four-Mile mine aswell as the Tyler-Morgan facility near the Kanawha/Fayette border.

“A decision today by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia is yet another victory for West Virginia’s 63,000 coal mining families in their efforts to defend their jobs against an on-going legal onslaught that has needlessly delayed mining permits for years.

In its decision in the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition v. United States Army Corps of Engineers case the Court said in essence that it is the sole purview of the states, their elected policymakers (such as the Legislature) and state regulatory agencies to determine water quality standards when granting mining permits.