May 18, 2011

The Athabascan Ahtna indigenous peoples of Alaska have filed a complaint against the Usibelli Coal Mine with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development alleging that Usibelli’s exploration activities are disturbing their ancestral lands. Because the exploration permits are more than 20 years ago, they allow Usibelli to explore areas that have been inhabited in the intervening decades. As an example, Usibelli has built a road to support the exploration that is 100 yards from the tribal council school.

The peoples are also concerned that further development would turn back efforts for salmon stream reclamation. “For years now, with financial and technical help from federal agencies and other partners, we’ve invested over $1 million and thousands of man hours of effort on fish passage and salmon population restoration on Moose Creek, ruined by World War I coal mining, said Chief Gary Harrison. “Our efforts received substantial funding and won national awards from the U.S. federal government. Now they want to destroy it all over again.”

Read article at http://www.thecordovatimes.com/article/1120chickaloon_natives_file_complaint_against

May 18, 2011

The Oak Grove Mine in Jefferson County, AL is operational once again. The mine was struck by a tornado that ravaged the area on April 28 and damaged much of the mine’s above-ground operations including its preparation plant and conveyor system. Nobody at the mine was injured by the storm. At this time those above-ground systems are still being assessed, so the mine is just moving the raw coal to the surface but not shipping it.

Oak Grove produces metallurgical (met) coal, and had planned significant capital investment to expand its production. The mine was completely closed for two weeks, though obviously without its processing systems, it’s unclear when the mine will resume actual coal sales.

Read article at http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2011/05/18/cliffs-gets-back-to-mining-at-oak-grove-in-alabama-tornado-aftermath/ and a more detailed analysis of the mine’s status at http://www.trefis.com/articles/56452/can-cliffs-north-american-coal-operations-weather-the-storm/2011-05-04

May 18, 2011

The US Bureau of Land Management has agreed to an application by the Belle Ayr Mine to lease land adjacent to it in a July 13, 2011 auction. The Belle Ayr North tract is 1671 acres on the surface and contains 221M mineable tons of coal. Since the Powder River Basin has not been considered a coal mining region since it was decertified in 1990, the decision on leases in the PRB are proposed by the mining companies, not the BLM. As a consequence, almost all mine lease auctions have a single bidder, although the BLM reserves the right to reject a bid if it determines it to be insufficient.

The auction will be held at the BLM office in Cheyenne, WY.

Read article at http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_6f674652-62fe-5097-92f5-8c4341fc56a8.html

May 12, 2011

Scholastic, Inc. is facing criticism about a fourth grade curriculum module that was paid for by and developed with the American Coal Foundation. Scholastic regularly is guided in developing its curricula by outside groups such as the American Society of Hematology, the Federal Trade Commission and the Census Bureau, but the “United States of Energy” module was criticized because of its one-sided presentation of issues surrounding coal.

“Promoting ‘client objectives’ to a captive student audience isn’t education,” Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said in a statement. “It’s predatory marketing. By selling its privileged access to children to the coal industry, Scholastic is commercializing classrooms and undermining education.” The other groups involved in the letter-writing campaign are Rethinking Schools and Friends of the Earth.

Read article at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11132/1146071-298-0.stm

May 11, 2011

Cloud Peak has announced that it has won its bid to expand its Antelope Mine. It’s bid of nearly $300M dollars was accepted by the Bureau of Land Management for the West Antelope 11 North Coal Tract. The tract is estimated to hold 350M tons of coal, and will double Antelope’s reserves and add 12 years of production onto the mine’s life. Cloud Peak has already made its first payment of nearly $60M for the tract.

Under the Lease By Application rules, Cloud Peak requested the BLM lease West Antelope 11 North, specifying the exact size, shape and location of the tract. No other bids were made on the tract.

Read articles at http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-markets/201105111848/000539/cloud-peak-energy-wins-wyoming-coal-tract-lease-for-2977-million.aspx and http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/6075944

Read official announcement of the lease at http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2011/may/11coalsale.html

May 10, 2011

A new survey of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia residents finds that people who live in close proximity to mountain top removal coal mines feel sick more often than those who live close to other kinds of mines such as underground coal mines. Conducted by Keith J. Zullig and Michael Hendryx at West Virginia University and published in the American Journal of Public Health, the survey
asked randomly chosen respondents how many days in the last month they were sick. Zullig and Hendryx compensated for confounding factors such as alcohol use, education levels, marital status, obesity, smoking, but in the end found that the quality of life was most far worse if the recipient lived in counties with open-pit coal mining.

Zullig says that future work may try and factor in the actual distance to the mining facility, as well as try to determine the relative importance of water and air pollution to the responses.

Read article at http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=20073. Read AJPH article at http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/5/848

May 10, 2011

Attempts by Wild Earth Guardians and the Sierra Club to get the Powder River Basin declared a coal-producing region have been rejected by US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly as an untimely collateral attack. Wild Earth Guardians had filed suit to reverse a 1990 decision to decertify the Powder River Basin as a means to block several major coal leases in the region. Since that decision, production in the PRB has skyrocketed and the region now produces 42% of all coal in the United States.

In its filings Wild Earth Guardians claimed that the decertification meant that the coal leases were not receiving sufficient scrutiny including requiring environmental impact statements about whether the region as a whole was contributing to climate change. Because the region is decertified, competitive bids are not taken to sell the leases, and the environmental impact of leases is taken on a case-by-case basis instead of considering the region as a whole. A separate lawsuit that is a broader challenge to the leasing practices remains unaffected by the decision.

Read article at http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Coal-lease-challenge-rejected-by-federal-judge,58265

May 4, 2011

Massey Energy, owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine whose explosion killed 29 miners a year ago, was cited in April for dozens of safety violations at its Randolph Mine in Boone County West Virginia. Inspectors were flabbergasted by the conditions they found in their inspection, with Joseph Main, head of the Mining Safety and Health Administration, describing them as “nothing short of outrageous”.

During the inspection miners found so much coal dust the miners were actually coated in the dust and surrounded by a cloud of it, exposing them to risks of explosion as well as black lung disease. Additionally, mining machines were being run without adequate air supply and had insufficient water to surpress the dust, and in places there was a lack of air curtains necessary to keep a safe flow of air throughout the mine. Massey, based in Richmond, Virginia, disciplined several individuals after the inspection, and “will take all actions necessary to ensure that our operations comply with the letter of the law,” according to General Counsel Shane Harvey.

Read article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-04/massey-cited-by-u-s-for-outrageous-mine-safety-violations-1-.html. Read MSHA press release at http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2011/NR110503.asp

May 2, 2011

On the last day of its legislative session, the state of Montana has passed a $2.8M annual tax break to the Signal Peak Mine in Roundup, MT. Senate Bill 266 halves the gross proceeds tax for coal mines, taking it from 5% to 2.5%. The reduction applies to the first 10 years of production of any underground coal mine that is new or expanding operations, but all parties seem to agree that it’s targeted at Signal Peak. “It’ll increase their bottom line enough to attract additional investment dollars” said Alan Olson (R-Roundup), which should enable the 280 employee mine to expand and create more jobs in Musselshell County.

Some Democrats noted the irony of the state underwriting the coal mine when it struggled to fund its basic commitments such as education and social services aimed at the poor and the very young and old. The bill almost didn’t pass — Governor Schweitzer’s amendatory veto stipulated a change in the tax rebate mechanism to the “2.5% for 10 years” mechanism from giving counties authority to reduce their taxation of mines by 50%. When the bill came up for a vote it was defeated 25-25, but with heavy subsequent lobbying by the governor’s office, the senate voted to suspend its rules and it eventually passed with a 30-20 vote.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_aebf9530-7547-11e0-a74e-001cc4c002e0.html

April 22, 2011

A federal judge has upheld a $55,000 fine for the near-disaster at Quecreek #1 Mine in 2002 where out-of-date mine maps allowed miners to breach into an adjacent mine that was flooded. Nine miners were trapped for three days before they were rescued. Previous to this ruling, a similar fine against the engineering company who prepared the maps. The mine’s operator has already paid a $4100 fine for its role in the accident.

Read article at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/04/22/judge-upholds-fine-in-near-disaster-at-quecreek/.

Read the original MSHA report on the incident and the judge’s ruling at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/04/22/judge-upholds-fine-in-near-disaster-at-quecreek/