April 3, 2011

In 2009, the Port of Vancouver faced a difficult choice: to export potash or to export coal. They chose potash, and while port officials won’t say they never will export coal, they aren’t looking back on that decision. In the end it came down to the two companies’ proposals, BHP Billiton wanting to sign a long-term lease to export potash, and Sino-American wanting to export 12 million tons annually. But Sino-American’s proposal was more contentious with the company balking at the port’s insistence that coal-storage facilities being covered to protect fugitive coal dust from damaging other imports including adjacent facilities used by Subaru to import cars.

BHP Billiton on the other hand was viewed as an ideal attempt, a more stable and well funded company who was willing to cover its potash storage facilities, build up the infrastructure and rail lines of the port, and make a 70-80 year commitment with the port. “Coal facilities have a tendency to come and go” said Larry Paulson, the port’s executive directory. “People will always grow things,” he said. “That’s just a fact of life.” In the meantime, Sino-American is considering three other ports in Washington and Oregon for its future exports, though it will not name the exact location.

Read article at http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/apr/03/dodging-coal-embracing-potash-the-port-of-vancouve/

April 2, 2011

Between 2000 and 2009, Massey Energy’s subsidiary mines was issued thousands of citations and had more fatalities any other company in the United States. But federal officials have never charged any Massey officials with any criminal accounts, instead choosing to go after low-level employees at Massey’s subsidiaries. The irony was not lost on Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield, widowed in January 2006 by the fire at Massey subsidiary Aracoma’s Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County. While Aracoma officials pleaded guilty to 10 different safety violations, the widows objected to the government’s promise not to prosecute any Massey employees. “If Massey executives have done nothing wrong and bear no criminal responsibility for the fire that killed Don and Elvis, why do they need this deal?” Bragg said at the time. “If they’re innocent, they don’t.” Eventually the judge approved the plea-bargain citing his reluctance to second-guess prosecutors.

But fines such as a record $20M and the prosecution of subsidiary employees don’t seem to have made a difference in the safety record of Massey’s subsidiaries. As an example, two years after the record fine, the Sierra Club and others filed suit claiming that the water pollution had actually gotten worse since the fine was levied. And a year after the government settled with Aracoma, the Upper Big Branch Mine blew up.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/montcoal/201104020982

March 30, 2011

Federal judge has ruled to uphold a $761k fine issued to the Stillhouse Mine No. 1 in Harlan County, Kentucky. The fine was the result of a December 3, 2006 where federal officials discovered four flagrant violations of mining rules including the mine turning off the mine’s ventilation fans while miners were working five miles below the surface. On that day, potentially explosive levels of methane and coal dust had built up in the six hours that the fans had been turned off; inspectors described the situation “fatal injuries were highly likely.”

In ruling to uphold the fine, the judge noted that three mine supervisors had previously pleaded guilty to criminal violations of mining laws. Furthermore, he said “when Stillhouse shut down the only device moving air through its extensive mine and extracted coal for six hours, it created an environment ripe for the occurrence of a fatal explosion. “Just because Stillhouse averted disaster does not mean its violation did not create a high risk of such an event.” Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said “Although the case was not resolved for more than four years, we are extremely pleased with the judge’s decision and will continue to use this important enforcement tool in our ongoing efforts to keep mine operators accountable.”

Read article at http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110330/NEWS01/303300106/Judge-upholds-761-000-penalties-against-Stillhouse-Mining and press release at http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2011/NR110330.asp

March 26, 2011

The Bureau of Land Management is clarifying an announcement by about future coal mining in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. On March 22, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the BLM would be auctioning off 758M tons of coal and said the coal sale would generate between thirteen and twenty-one billion dollars in tax revenue. On March 25, the Associated Press learned that the dollar figure included an additional 1.6 billion tons of coal that the BLM is planning to lease later in the year. The additional coal is part of four other leases still under consideration which total nearly 14000 acres, and the key decision on those leases is expected within months.

The mistake was first caught by Marion Loomis, head of the Wyoming Mining Association, who said that by his figures the 758 million tons would be worth closer to $2 billion in taxes than $21B. If the 758M tons generated $21B in taxes, then the mines would be paying $28/ton in taxes when the spot price for that quality of coal is under $14.

Read articles at http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_48b71029-521c-5f68-b1dd-ca92d8eaaf7a.html, http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/03/25/obama-officials-inflate-wyo-coal-lease-benefits/ and http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f4e7b340-e9a6-5736-9c3d-cd993efb5ae3.html

March 25, 2011

Massey will not be required to monitor the health of children attending an elementary school 235 feet from their new coal silo. A jury ruled in favor of Massey, rejecting claims that the coal dust covering the playgrounds and hallways of the elementary school came from the silo. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had requested that Massey pay for long-term medical monitoring of the children, whereas lawyers for the defense countered that there was no way to prove where the coal dust came from and that since no children had been diagnosed with black lung disease, it would be unreasonable to force Massey to pay for medical screening for it.

Read articles at http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=44160 and http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=19485

March 24, 2011

Liberty Coal, a Denver-based coal mining company, plans to obtain the necessary permits and start drilling cores on its 1200 acres of land between Sheridan and the Montana border. Preliminary estimates place the mineable coal at 50 million tons and it will most likely be mined in open pits. The drilling will both help firm up that estimate and determine whether it would be more economical to have an underground mine instead of a surface mine.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_db4f2d49-9259-5cd1-8dbb-c3953094e655.html

March 23, 2011

In an attempt to resolve a century-long claim of misappropriation of resources by the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana has resulted in a complicated proposed settlement backed by Congress. The federal government has proposed giving an estimated 145M tons of publicly owned coal to Great Northern, a Texas company. Great Northern in turn would give a significant portion of the royalties as well as some other mining rights back to the Northern Cheyenne. Signal Peak Energy hopes to be one of the companies to do the actual extraction for some 30M tons of the reserves near its existing reserves in Roundup, MT. By obtaining the missing rights, the Norther Cheyenne will have a massive unified block of 1.9B tons of coal near Ashland, MT.

Unlike many recent leasing decisions, environmentalists have been relatively quiet. “I can understand the desire of the tribe to get those minerals back, but the corporation (Great Northern) is getting public minerals basically for something they should have done a long time ago because it’s the right thing to do,” said Alexis Bonogofsky, tribal lands coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation.

Read article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/deal_would_transfer_mont_coal_tracts_to_texas_company_allow_tribe_to_consolidate_reserves/2011/03/23/ABsTe2JB_story.html

March 23, 2011

The Bureau of Land Management has announced that it will lease an estimated 750M tons of coal in the Powder River Basin generating up to $21B revenue, half of which will go to the state of Wyoming. Furthermore the tracts are just the first of up to a dozen more that the BLM plans to lease in the next three years. The announcement was welcomed by Matt Mead, governor of Wyoming, “We need the energy,” Governor Mead said. “We need the jobs that come with energy. We need the electricity.” Environmentalists were critical of the decision. “Rather than look ahead to our energy future, Secretary Salazar seems content to keep looking in the rear-view mirror, keeping this country dangerously dependent on dirty energy,” said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy director for WildEarth Guardians, an advocacy group.

Wyoming is the largest coal producing state providing approximately 40% of the coal mined each year. However, the industry is not a major player in the state in terms of employment. Only 7000 workers work in the industry which is less than 3% of the state’s workforce.

Read article at http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/federal-lands-in-wyoming-opened-to-coal-mining/

March 22, 2011

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Wyoming governor Matt Mead jointly announced the decision to open for leasing two large tracts in the Powder River Basin, releasing 758 million tons of coal for leasing in the next few months. The lease, bonus bigs and royalty payments should generated between $13.4 to $21.3 billion dollars, of which Wyoming would get almost half. Each of the four were “leases by application” where an existing mining company requests that land adjacent to their mine be opened up for lease. In such cases, there is usually only a single bidder, although the US Bureau of Land Management can reject the bid as insufficient.

The four announced leases are:

• May 11, West Antelope II North, 2,838 acres/350M tons of mineable coal, filed by Antelope Coal LLC, adjacent to the Antelope Mine.
• June 15– West Antelope II South, 1,909 acres/56M tons of mineable coal, filed by Antelope Coal LLC, adjacent to the Antelope Mine.
• July 13 – Belle Ayr North, 1,671 acres/222M tons of mineable coal, filed by Alpha Coal West.
• August 17 – Caballo West, 1,024 acres/130M tons of mineable coal, filed by Caballo Coal Company. The Caballo West and Belle Ayr tracts touch each other and fill in the gap between the Belle Ayr Mine and the Caballo Mine.

Read articles at http://thewyonews.net/2011/03/22/blm-to-offer-four-powder-river-basin-coal-leases/ and http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576216981490066162.html or press release at http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Announces-Coal-Lease-Sales-in-Wyoming.cfm

March 18, 2011

Hughie Elbert Stover, former head of Massey security at the Upper Big Branch Mine, has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice for his role in the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners. Stover has been accused of ordering another employee in January 2011 to dispose of security documents that federal officials say are evidence and were willfully withheld from investigators. Investigators were able to recover the documents from the trash compactor before they were destroyed. He is also facing scrutiny over allegations that he helped Massey maintain multiple radio channels to warn miners of the arrival of federal inspectors, something that is illegal under the federal Mine Act.

Stover is free on $10000 bail.

Read article at http://www.dailymail.com/ap/ApWorld/201103182722