November 18, 2010

The West Virginia Environmental Quality Board has blocked the issuance of a water pollution permit and, by extension, International Coal Group from opening a new extension of their Monongalia County coal mine, setting four days in December to hear an appeal about the mine brought by the Sierra Club. ICG has argued that the permit should not require extensive review because the new mine is merely an extension of previously permitted mining. The Sierra Club maintains that since this is new mining it needs to meet the new, stricter, standards for water pollution. Additionally the Sierra Club says that the existing mining is already polluting more than is allowed by its permits.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201011180986

November 17, 2010

China’s consumption of coal has risen so quickly that Beijing is considering capping domestic production to make sure that it doesn’t deplete its domestic stock of coal too quickly. While China holds 14% of the world’s coal reserves, but consumes nearly 47% of the coal produced world-wide. Because China’s economy is very dependent on coal, this makes insufficient reserves and production an issue of national security.

Read article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB30001424052748704312504575617810380509880.html

November 17, 2010

The West Virginia Supreme Court has voted unanimously to suspend the license of a lawyer at the Jackson Kelly firm for a year. Douglas A. Smoot was found to have withheld evidence from Elmer Daugherty, a miner of 42 years who was representing himself in court trying to claim disability for black lung disease. Smoot withheld the “narrative summary” of Daugherty’s medical report, an act the WV Supreme Court found to be “deceitful, dishonest, a misrepresentation, and prejudicial to the administration of justice, and thus amounted to a violation” of the rules of professional conduct for lawyers.

Westmoreland Coal Co. eventually conceded that they were responsible for Daugherty’s black lung disease, but only after Daugherty hired a lawyer to represent him. Unresolved remains the conduct of other Jackson Kelly lawyers who were accused during Smoot’s administrative hearing of regularly doctoring reports for similar cases.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201011171085

November 16, 2010.

Ambre Energy, an Australian mining company, has submitted a request to redevelop a port on the Colombia River with the intent of exporting up to 5 million tons of PRB coal annually. The request, one of three potential ports in planning or development, will require the dredging of the river to handle the larger vessels, as well as significant infrastructure development on the shores.

Read article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111605604.html

November 16, 2010

The Cowlitz County Commissioners will meet today to review a request to build a major coal-export port on the Columbia River. Proposed by Ambre Energy, an Australian energy company, the port would link directly to railroads transporting coal from mines in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana; once on ships it would most likely end up in China where it would help fuel the massive industrialization of that country.

Environmentalists have opposed the move and question why this decision is being made by a county commission without any input from state or federal agencies, and are especially concerned with the implication for American jobs. K.C. Golden from Climate Solutions said “This is about digging up a huge chunk of Wyoming and shipping it to China. What’s China going to do with all that coal? They’re going to make the steel that we don’t make anymore; they’re going to manufacture the products that we don’t manufacture anymore. That’s not a good jobs strategy.”

Read article at http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/16967-1

November 16, 2010

Steven Leer, CEO of Arch Coal has called for a thorough review and potentially the roll-back of the new coal mining regulations that have gone into effect in the last four years. “If I were Congress and the president … I’m going to take the next year and we’re just going to review them all and any of them that don’t support jobs and don’t make sense and don’t give us the bang for the dollar that we thought, we’re going to move to rescind them or change them or modify them.”

Leer said he also thought he would end up in court to stop the EPA holding up one of Arch’s new project, a proposed mountaintop removal mine that would be the largest in West Virginia. The EPA is considering vetoing a water permit that has already been issued for the mine.

Read article at http://blogs.wsj.com/ceo-council/2010/11/16/arch-coal-ceo-calls-for-rolling-back-regulation/

November 15, 2010

A revision of a groundbreaking report issued in June still shows that the West Virginia government pays more to the coal industry than it receives in return, but the estimated amount the state loses each year financing the coal industry has been reduced from the first version of the report. Originally estimated at a $97.5 million dollar net cost to the budget, the revised estimate (made with suggestions from the coal industry) has reduced this amount to a net loss for taxpayers of $42 million dollars per year.

While the coal industry does bring in significant tax revenues and employment benefits to the state’s residents, these revenues were found insufficient to offset the many hidden costs borne by taxpayers including reclamation costs for mines that go bankrupt, damage to the transportation infrastructure of the state and the shear cost of bureaucracy required to police the industry. It recommended a change in state policies to “ensure that the coal industry, rather than the state’s taxpayers, pays for the costs associated with coal-related activity.”

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201011151054

November 15, 2010

MSHA says that they are unable to properly investigate the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners in April 2010. Claiming that the mine’s owner, Massey Energy, is impeding their investigation, they are threatening to file papers to completely sieze control of the mine from Massey.

The dispute centers around several of the water sprayers that are attached to the longwall mining machine and are designed to reduce the amount of explosive dust in the air. MSHA would like to run water through them to try and see if they were functioning properly when the explosion occurred — Massey has objected strenuously, claiming that they haven’t finished their internal investigations and that MSHA’s test would taint evidence.

Read article at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10319/1103542-100.stm
Read a similar but more detailed article at http://wvgazette.com/News/montcoal/201011150941

November 15, 2010

More than 650 people from Rawl, Lick Creek, Merrimac and Sprigg, West Virginia arrived at mandatory mediation talks to try and resolve more than 700 lawsuits filed against Massey Energy. The suits each allege that a Massey subsidiary polluted resident’s drinking water from a local coal slurry operation. Many brought brown and bright orange tap water from their homes to back up their point.

The plaintiffs originally tried filing a class action suit in Mingo county, but a judge denied the request, resulting in 700 individual lawsuits being filed.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201011151013

Nov 12, 2010

Rumors are flying in the Powder River Basin after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet landed a fleet of 9 private jets in Gillette. While nobody seems to know the full reason, the two billionaires are reported to have toured the Black Thunder mine, and most speculation has to do with them getting involved in business venture with the mine.

Read article at http://www.kxlf.com/news/gates-and-buffet-visit-wyoming-why-/