March 2, 2011

A previously unpublished report from MSHA to congress warned of serious enforcement lapses just two weeks before the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 workers in April 2010. Concerns included incomplete inspections and inadequate enforcement actions, echoing numerous previous reports by MSHA as well as by Labor Department Inspector General and the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office.

• Inspectors in 20 of 25 field offices reviewed did not properly evaluate the gravity and negligence of mine operator safety and health violations.
• Supervisors in 21 of those 25 field offices did not perform in-depth reviews to ensure that inspectors took appropriate enforcement actions in accordance with MSHA policies.
• MSHA officials in 15 of the 25 field offices audited did not adequately document inspections so that any enforcement actions taken would stand up in court.
• Inspectors in four of the field offices did not complete mandatory spot inspections for mines that generated large amounts of explosive methane gas.
• At an unspecified number of field offices, there was a “lack of comprehensive inspections of all areas of the mining operation” and inappropriate “levels of enforcement issuances.”

A request by Ken Ward, Jr. to MSHA for a copy of the report was refused because “the document could only be made public by Congress.”

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201103021155

March 2, 2011

Peabody Energy Company has signed a Asian coal-export deal with Carrix, the largest US container terminal operator, to ship up to 24M tons of coal annually through a new container terminal planned 20 miles south of the Canadian border. The move matches export the agreement between Arch Coal and Millennium Bulk Terminals to export through a proposed terminal in Longview, WA and expands a previous agreement for Peabody to export its coal through British Columbia .

Both Peabody/Carrix and the earlier Arch/Longview agreements represent a significant expansion of coal export. Previous export routes either went through British Columbia, which has limited export capacity, or the Gulf of Mexico, which is a much longer route to the expanding Asian markets.

Read article at http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_45e1b38e-44ef-5cf9-bea9-2f05b3c1fe04.html

March 1, 2011

The Bureau of Land Management has set May 11, 2011 as the date to hold a competitive lease for the West Antelope II North Coal Tract. The tract was nominated for lease by the owners of the adjacent Antelope Coal Mine. The comment period for the lease as well as bidding ends May 10, 2011.

Read notice at http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/03/01/2011-4364/notice-of-competitive-coal-lease-sale-wyoming

March 1, 2011

The EPA has signed off on a Clean Water Act permit for the Spring Branch #3 mine in Mingo County, WV, making it one of the few mines to be removed from the EPA’s new “enhanced” review process. In a Feb. 14 letter, the EPA notified the US Army Corps of Engineers that it had received enough concessions that it could approve the CWA permit; usually once the EPA agrees, the US Army Corps of Engineers will issue the permit.

To win the approval, the Spring Branch mine agreed to reduce its stream impacts by 76% and the surface area of disturbance has been reduced by approximately 66%. The WV Department of Environmental Protection issued its necessary permits for the mine in July 2010.

Read article at http://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/article.aspx?CDID=A-12415663-12084&KPLT=2

March 1, 2011

Arch Coal, the second large coal mining company in the United States, has agreed to pay a $4M fine to settle numerous Clean Water Act violations in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. In addition, the company has agreed to changes in its business to prevent future violations that are projected to reduce the company’s pollution discharges by 2 million pounds per year, and will make special efforts to control the release of selenium.

The settlement covers activities at four of Arch’s subsidiaries: Coal Mac in Mingo County, WV; Lone Mountain Processing in Lee County, VA; Cumberland River Coal in Letcher County, KY; and Mingo Logan Coal in Logan County, WV.

Read EPA press release at http://bit.ly/eshHCb or see related documents at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/cwa/arch.html

February 28, 2011

Peabody Energy has signed a new deal to allow them to export up to 24M tons of coal a year through the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal outside of Bellingham, Washington. Gateway, run by SSA Marine, is located just south of the Canadian border. It would become the major hub for Peabody’s coal exports from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana to Asian markets including China and India.

While still in the approval process, Peabody expects Gateway Pacific to become operational in the next several years. The move is seen as a counter to Arch Coal’s efforts to export its coal through a different proposed coal port in Longview, Washington in the southwest of the state, as well as a second deal to let Arch Coal export through Prince Rupert in British Columbia.

Read article at http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110228-717767.html or at http://www.steelguru.com/raw_material_news/Peabody_Energy_and_SSA_Marine_inks_pact_for_Powder_River_Basin_coal_exports/193696.html

February 27, 2011

Mechel Keystone Service Industries says that the EPA’s refusal to issue new NPDES (water discharge) permits for coal mines is the reason that it has chosen to idle the Keystone Coal Preparation Plant in Mcdowell County, WV. The plant, which had served the region for more than a century, was facing major upgrades to remain competitive. According to the press release “Such an investment must be based on the knowledge that sufficient raw coal will be produced to necessitate the plant’s capacity. Unfortunately, the current EPA refusal to issue any NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination Discharge) permits related to coal mining in southern West Virginia leaves our company with no clear way of knowing whether we can operate this plant without the needed raw coal to process.”

However, the news surrounding the Keystone plant isn’t completely one-sided. Mechel’s decision to idle the Keystone plant idling comes in the wake of the opening of its new Nufac Plant near Pineville in December 2010. A request to the WVDEP to discover which mining permits Mechel is upset about returned a surprising answer: Mechel only has one permit that is undergoing the new heightened screening, and its status at present is “Awaiting additional information from applicant”, indicating the holdup may not be the EPA.

Read article at http://bdtonline.com/local/x1348434585/Keystone-Service-Industries-idles-coal-preparation-plant and additional analysis at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/02/28/blaming-epa/

February 24, 2011

An email from December 20, 2010 shows that Millennium intended to ship 80M tons of coal annually through its proposed port in Longview, Washington, instead of the 5.7M tons it stated in its application in front of the Cowlitz County Commissioners. The email, sent by the CEO of Millennium’s parent company Ambre Energy, further undermines the credibility of the company in front of regulators. The CEO of Millennium, Joe Cannon, stated there’s nothing unusual about the emails: “When any business develops a site, they’re going to look at all kinds of things. Different people speculate on different things, and they send e-mails, and that’s where they came from,” Cannon said Thursday.

Environmentalists and the Washington State Department of Ecology are concerned about the emails because the environmental impact of projects are supposed to be evaluated as a whole, not pieces. “You don’t want to see a project’s proponents trying to carve out individual parts of a project and trying to get approvals based on those individual pieces,” said Laura Watson an assistant state attorney general, though she insisted she was speaking in general and not about this case in particular.

Read articles at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-24/apnewsbreak-coal-port-sought-80m-tons-yr-capacity.html and http://tdn.com/news/local/article_8a86fa28-4072-11e0-b60d-001cc4c002e0.html and see a timeline of events related to the proposed terminal at http://tdn.com/article_053a2db6-3638-11e0-a779-001cc4c03286.html

February 23, 2011

Dave Freudenthal, former governor of Wyoming, has been named to the board of Arch Coal. Arch mined 160M tons of coal last year, much of it in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and Green River regions. Freudenthal served two terms as governor and was very popular in the state, in spite being a Democrat in a strongly Republican state.

Read article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/former-wyoming-governor-joins-arch-coal-board.html

February 22, 2011

Increased enforcement and regulatory efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency may be stymied by a bill that passed the House of Representatives on Saturday morning. The bill blocks three major initiatives by the EPA: the enforcement of its new stream-fill rule, the introduction of any new rules regarding the handling and disposal of coal-ash, and the vetoing of “dredge and fill” permits, as it did for the first time on the Spruce #1 Mine permit. The rule also prohibits the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from using any money to develop, carry out, implement, or otherwise enforce new rules to protect streams from mining damage.

The bill is expected to face a harder road to approval in the US Senate and may face a presidential veto.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/201102221276