Governor Tomblin,
I am writing to ask for your favorable support of the Coal Jobs & Safety Act of 2015 (SB 357).
The safety and environmental provisions of SB 357 will modernize our laws to make sure they more accurately reflect the conditions and practices in today's West Virginia coal mines, which are the most advanced and progressive in the world. SB 357 gracefully brings our laws into the 21st Century and makes them much more consistent and compliant with the relevant federal laws and regulations. It further toughens our existing and successful drug testing program, puts the most progressive and protective diesel equipment program in the hands of your agency experts and maintains all the traditional restrictions on the movement of equipment where energized trolley wire is present. While SB 357 will hopefully stop some of the frustrating flow of negative lawsuits, it also gives hope to the more than 4000 laid off miners and confidence to the best coal miners in the world that their jobs will be preserved and they will be able to continue to work.
I am asking you to please sign SB 357, the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015, and help us keep our people working. My family and I are depending on you.