J. Brett Harvey, President and Chief Executive Office of CONSOL Energy Inc., the nation’s largest underground coal mining company, called on the coal industry to abandon its incremental approach to mine safety improvement and drive accident rates to zero at every mine in the nation.

“We need to change the paradigm and we need to change it now,” Harvey said in a speech today before the Utah Mining Association annual meeting in Park City, Utah.
(**Note:  Brett Harvey’s speech may be viewed in its entirety by logging on to www.consolenergy.com and clicking on “About CONSOL” and then click on “Speeches”) 

“What industry must change is our incremental approach to safety improvement because it creates an unintended tolerance to accidents.  We need to get to zero!”
Harvey said that improving safety in incremental steps, while successful in reducing accidents, did not eliminate them. “Incremental improvement still means people are getting hurt,” he explained.  “If we accept this approach, we had better be prepared to ask for the volunteers who want to get injured this year.”

The Friends of Coal will again host its “Country Roads Tailgate Party” Thursday evening at the Charleston Civic Center.  The event will last from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The tailgate party is part of the pre-game festivities for the “2nd Annual Friends of Coal Bowl” football matchup between Marshall University and West Virginia University, scheduled for Saturday, September 8 at Joan Edwards Stadium in Huntington.

All fans of both schools are invited to attend on Thursday.  There is no charge for the event.  Trucks and SUV’s loaded with tailgate goodies will be provided, along with music, door prizes and other special events.

‘This game is going to be a big event as we move into the 2007 football season,” said Friends of Coal spokesman Dan Miller.  “We want to get things started by getting Mountaineer and Thundering Herd fans together just to have a good time.  We hope that by the end of the evening, everybody will be in the proper frame of mind for the big game.”

Rick Johnson and Mike Agnello of WCHS radio will broadcast their daily talk show from the Civic Center from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Governor Joe Manchin is expected to make an appearance as are mascots from both schools.  Friends of Coal spokesmen and former coaches Don Nehlen and Bob Pruett will speak to the gathering and MU Athletic Director Bob Marcum and WVU Athletic Director Eddie Pastilong have also been invited. The revamped Friends of Coal Bowl Governor’s Trophy will be on display.
 

The 18th Annual Hatfield Open, sponsored by the Kanawha Valley Mining Institute, is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18 at the Brier Patch Golf Club in Beckley, WV beginning at 11 a.m.  This golf outing is to support the KVMI scholarship program and your participation is greatly appreciated, plus you have a GREAT time.

For full details go to:  http://www.kvmi.org/user/2007%20Golf%20Notice.pdf
 

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The second annual “Country Roads Tailgate Party,” is scheduled for Thursday, August 23, at the Charleston Civic Center.  The object of this event is to bring fans of Marshall and WVU together and get everybody in the proper frame of mind for the upcoming Friends of Coal Bowl.

Coaches Bob Pruett and Don Nehlen will be on hand, along with the mascots and other folks from the two universities.  Mark your calendars and come out for a good time.

There are a number of activities scheduled throughout the next three weeks, leading up to the second Friends of Coal Bowl on September 8, 2007 in Huntington.  Meetings will be held today (Friday) with the Marshall University Athletic Director and his staff to finalize a number of details.

The first real promotional event bringing focus to the Bowl and our sponsorship will be a concert at Appalachian Power Park on Saturday (August 18), featuring some leading country performers.  Friends of Coal and the Friends of Coal Bowl will be a featured part of the day's activities as well as the regional radio advertising promoting the event.  For ticket information contact the Association or WV Radio Corporation.

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At their annual meeting this past weekend the West Virginia Coal Association re-elected Andrew Jordon of Pritchard Mining Company to a second term as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pritchard Mining is located at Hansford, WV and has operations in Boone and Kanawha Counties.  As indicated by their unanimous election, the members of the Association are thrilled to have Jordon represent them and the coal industry for another year.

Jordon says he is honored to have the opportunity to continue the work that he started during his previous term as Chairman.

“I’m excited to carry on the things that were started this past year in the midst of constant scrutiny and backlash from those who oppose the coal industry,” stated Jordon.

Over 200 area youth between the ages of six and 16 will be at Laidley Field this Saturday, May 26, 2007 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to participate in the 12th Annual “Giving Back to the Community” Free Football Camp. Mark Mason, founder of the program, and a 1991 Marshall University defensive player of the year and former all-star linebacker for the Charleston Rocketts, will be directing the charitable football camp.
 
Mason says the purpose of the camp is to provide an opportunity for young people within the community, who may not have the resources, to attend an athletic camp focused on teaching values and providing counseling services.

Did you know that 99% of West Virginia electricity and more than half of American electricity is generated by coal produced in West Virginia? Or that every coal mining job generates between five and six other jobs in the local economy?
 
Last year West Virginia mines produced 158.8 million tons of coal, 2nd only to Wyoming. Of that coal 91.9 million tons were produced in underground mining operations, more than any other state in the U.S.

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Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her.

"This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at -- hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House."

Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk.

In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake.

He said he was told by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., that if he persisted with his plans on an energy measure, nothing he did in the future would clear the Senate Finance Committee, where Baucus is chairman.

Bunning, R-Ky., later added that this was communicated between the senators' staffs. And Bunning said he communicated to Baucus: "Stuff it."

Normally, the comments would have been available for anyone to hear at Bunning's Web site, where he posts recordings of his weekly press calls.

But the recording of Tuesday's call was edited, and the senator's comments about the threats were taken out.

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