The Summersville Chamber of Commerce and Rotary will join with the Friends of Coal to host a Business/Coal Forum Tuesday, September 29 at the Summersville Armory. This forum will feature an up-to-date discussion by prominent business and coal officials of relevant issues impacting area businesses.  Join us to understand issues such as Cap and Trade legislation, EPA's action on new mining permits, severance taxes, and issues surrounding Mountaintop Mining Practices. The event will begin at 5 p.m. It will feature a wide range of guest speakers including representatives of the industry, state and local elected officials, union officials and others. Former WVU and Marshall football coaches Don Nehlen and Bob Pruett will be on hand as well.

This week, EIA reported that U.S. metallurgical exports for July were down only 1.3%, as compared to July of last year.  Also, comparing July 09 to July 08, steam exports were off by more than 55% while imported coal was down by 21%.  Year-to-date comparisons of 2009 to 2008 for the period of January through July, showed metallurgical exports off by 27%, steam exports down by 38% and imports off by 28%.

MSHA’s second quarter report of U.S. production shows there were 1,157 coal mines with some production of coal.  Of this total, 322 (28%) were publicly-owned and accounted for 75% of the production, while 835 (72%) were privately held and produced 25% of the year’s output.  Nationwide, in the second quarter of 2009, 68.7% of production came from surface mines with the remaining 31.3% being underground mined.

EIA’s preliminary release of the Annual Coal Report 2008 shows that the U.S. has more than 261 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, about 235 years at today’s consumption rate of 1.1 billion tons annually.  America has more coal reserves than any other country, with 27% of the world’s reserve base.

Preliminary information recently released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), documents the important role coal plays in promoting America’s economic strength through the provision of a large, affordable and readily available supply of energy.  The data show 2008 U.S. coal production at a record level of approximately 1.17 billion short tons, up 2.2 percent from 2007. Fifty-eight percent of production was from the West and 42 percent from the East. The number of mines increased from 1,374 in 2007 to 1,458 in 2008, a 6 percent increase. The average sales price per ton was $31.26, up 21 percent from the previous year.