The West Virginia Coal Hall of Fame inducted two new members, Charles Holland and Paul Morton, during ceremonies May 4 at the Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, WV as part of the 18^th Annual Joint Meeting of the Association and the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute.  Current WVCA Chairman Gary White with International Resources and James River Coal and past WVCA Board member Ben Statler were also selected to receive this honor but were unable to attend and will be inducted at next year’s Joint Meeting of the Association and Institutes.  Charles T. "Charlie" Holland and Paul Morton were inducted posthumously.

The Coal Hall of Fame was established by the West Virginia Coal Association, the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute and the West Virginia Mining and Reclamation Association in 1998. The Hall resides in the Mineral Resources Building of the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, in Morgantown.

Show Your Support for Kentucky Coal

Save the Dates:  June 5 in Frankfort and June 7 in Pikeville

Background:

At the request of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, the United States EPA will conduct hearings in Frankfort on June 5 and in Pikeville on June 7, regarding EPA’s specific objections to 36 individual KPDES permits that would authorize discharges from new or expanded surface coal mining activities in eastern Kentucky.

A little more than one month is left before the end of the comment period on the EPA’s proposed GHG New Source Performance Standards Rule. The EPA published its proposed rule last month in the Federal Register, setting New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gases. The 60-day comment period ends June 12. The public can view comment submissions at regulations.gov under the docket ID no. EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660.

Less than two weeks remain to submit stories and idea or reserve ad space in the upcoming annual West Virginia Coal Association/Friends of Coal State Journal insert.  If you would like to submit story ideas, photos or complete stories for the section, you can do so by contacting the Association at 304.342.4153 or emailing us at theadley@wvcoal.com. This year’s publication will be in glossy, magazine format with a projected page count of 48 pages.

The Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Mine safety is the top priority of three West Virginia Army National Guardsmen who are in Mongolia to share their knowledge of mining with coal mining officials in the Mongolian government.

First Lt. Joshua Poling of Morgantown, 1st Lt. John Sinsel of Grafton and Staff Sgt. Tommy Wolford of South Williamson, Ky., are full-time coal miners, as well as soldiers in the West Virginia Army National Guard.