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Former chief counsel to the Governor, Carte Goodwin, was sworn in as West Virginia’s newest United States Senator on Tuesday in Washington, DC. Carte was excited as well as somewhat intimidated when we talked with him Monday evening as he was preparing to become the youngest Senator in the United States at the age of 36. The average age of the Senate is 66 years old.
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The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report indicates that U.S. metallurgical exports for May 2010 were 262% ahead of those from a year ago, May 2009 (5.8 million tons v. 1.6 million tons). Met exports for the months January through May 2010 were 115% ahead of those for the same period a year ago (25 million tons v. 11.6 million tons). For the same 5 month period, steam exports were down 20% year to year and imports were 18.4% less. West Virginia production, for the 52 weeks through the week ending July 17, 2010 was down by 9% as compared to the same period in 2009.
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Jason Bostic (WVCA VP) spent several days this week in Washington, DC attending the initial Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) meetings that were held to review the two reports that serve as the basis for EPA’s April 1, 2010 Guidance on regulating coal mining in Appalachia under Sections 402 and 404 of the federal Clean Water Act.
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On Monday, the Association filed comments to the changes proposed by WVDEP to the water quality standards, 47CSR2. Jason Bostic (WVCA VP) authored and submitted these comments with a great deal of input from members of the Environmental & Technical Committee. Copies of these comments are available at the Association.
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Committee Substitute for H.R. 5663 which was introduced by Chairman George Miller of the US House Education and Labor Committee during Wednesday’s official Committee “Mark-up”. Thanks largely to the special efforts of several WVCA, NMA, and BCOA members, the Committee Substitute contains some favorable changes over the introduced version, but remains generally ominous. The threat of moderate legislation from Congresswoman Capito looming over House deliberations is also believed to have played a role in Chairman Miller’s decision to “soften” the bill.
Among other changes, the Chairman’s Substitute eliminates the proposed definition of S&S violations; revises and lowers the proposed penalties and miner loss of pay provisions; further alters the proposed POV program and directs the General Accountability Office to analyze MSHA’s plan approval process.
Chairman Miller maintains optimism that the full House will pass H.R. 5663 before the Labor Day recess or July 30th.
Communications and work continues with Senator Rockefeller and his staff with greater success to amend the bill anticipated once the bill is taken up by the Senate.
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According to Myron Ebell of the Conservative Enterprise Institute, the “cap-n-trade” bill has been removed from the Senate calendar for now. His note said: After another meeting of Senate Democrats on Thursday, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the anti-energy package he plans to bring to the floor next week will not include cap-n-tax. He said that he will be happy to bring cap-n-tax to the floor later in the session if Kerry can produce 60 votes. The package Reid hopes to bring to the floor includes four titles: BP oil spill provisions; energy efficiency measures; natural gas vehicles, especially heavy-duty trucks; and something on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is an appropriated trust to buy federal land and turn it into federal land funded from oil royalties. The major item is probably the title on natural gas vehicles and might be called the Boone Pickens Taxpayer-Funded Payoff.
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From The Charleston Gazette
By: Sen. Truman Chafin
NOW, more than ever, we need coal! Tuesday, July 6, electricity demand in the East surged to levels near those in the summer of 2006. With temperatures soaring above 100 degrees in cities from New York to Washington, utilities and grid operators witnessed power output close to the 2006 records. Fortunately, the power grid has been up to the task, thus far.
An engineer at John Amos elaborated that the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland Interconnection, "PJM", is stressed to near breaking. PJM is near max capacity, and it has been said that the grid may hiccup in the following days due to the extreme heat. One result of this misfortune, would be to shed load and cut off big users, which would essentially cause layoffs to keep the grid from crashing.
The increased demand is straining the system as it is; yet, there is another component that is frequently scrutinized but essential for the grid survival, which is coal.
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By: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito
Through the Environmental Protection Agency, Washington continues to push an anti-coal agenda. It amounts to an assault on an industry that employs more than 500,000 hardworking Americans and supplies nearly half of America’s electricity.
The EPA’s attempts to control climate change through regulation and stall the approval of mining permits can only lead to coal states like West Virginia bearing the brunt of poorly thought-out policies that translate into greater job loss and higher energy costs.
President Barack Obama is intent on passing legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Should Congress fail to act, the EPA will exert its regulatory authority in an unprecedented manner that will have far-reaching effects on nearly every sector of the U.S. economy — from higher prices at the gas pump to skyrocketing utility bills.
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