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The Friends of Coal and the West Virginia Coal Association in a sponsorship deal to lend its name and logo to Hillman Racing, for the #27 Camping World Truck Series entry driven by Team 7 MotorsportsVirginia driver Jeff Agnew at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the N.C. Education Lottery 200 held on May 17, 2013. The truck drove to a 24th place finish.
Audience estimates indicate the television viewership for the event was approximately 1 million viewers. The event was part of the annual “All-Star Weekend” NASCAR series at Charlotte.
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We have continued to increase our focus on social media outreach. Our Facebook pages have continued to grow, with the “Friends of Coal West Virginia” page now reaching over 9,200 fans and averaging approximately 40,000-50,000 page views per week. We have also seen several posts reach 10s of thousands of people – one has now been seen by more than 330,000 people.
Our other pages have also experienced significant growth, with the “Friends of Coal Virginia” page now topping 5700 fans and Citizens for Coal (on which we have posting privileges) topping 2,300 fans. Altogether, it can safely be estimated that our pages are reaching more than 100,000 people per week. Our growth rate exceeds 10 percent, with us adding approximately 300 new fans to the FOC-WV page in just this week alone.
We are rapidly integrating all our social media, including FLICKr, Twitter (both wvcoal.com and friendsofcoal.org have a Twitter feed), and we are evaluating other social media platforms, including a blog, which we are developing and a social media management tool (Sprout Social) which will allow us to manage all our social media efforts on a single platform.
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The Friends of Coal’s direct outreach effort is continuing and in fact is picking up steam headed into the summer months, with several speaking engagements and end of the year state high school championship events through our partnership with the West Virginia Secondary Schools Athletic Commission.
WVCA Executive Committee Member, Jim Bunn, President of Coal River Energy, presented the individual achievement plaque to Matthew Brafford, after his tremendous effort in the State Track & Field Championship in Charleston last weekend.
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Our social media campaign’s effectiveness is made evident by the results of a test we performed earlier this year, asking people to go to the White House “We the People” petition site and sign our petition to “stop the war on coal.” We rapidly drew more than the number needed (25,000) to require a response from the White House. The administration’s official response was issued this week.
“OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO: End to the War On Coal, end the job killing policies of the EPA and require an economic impact analysis of new policies.
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According to new projections from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, coal will continue to regain market share in electricity generation as its competitive position with natural gas continues to improve.
According to the report, coal generated at least 40 percent of U.S. electricity from November of last year through March, taking a clear lead over natural gas, which a year ago had equaled coal but which is losing some appeal as its cost rises.
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Governor Earl Ray Tomblin officially signed HB 2579, commonly referred to as the Selenium Bill into law during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony at the Capitol, Below, Governor Tomblin, surrounded by Senators and Delegates who were instrumental in assisting the passage of House Bill 2579, signs the bill into law. This significant legislation is intended to help protect jobs in our industry.
This bill was approved by 133 of the 134 members of the entire Legislature, because there was one member absent the day the bill was passed. This important bill changes the practices and protocols for monitoring discharges with the objective of collecting meaningful and accurate data that will prompt the development of a more realistic standard for selenium, particularly in situations with flowing water. The existing standard was developed in standing water situations outside West Virginia. The bill takes effect on July 12, 2013.
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In our continuing partnership with the WV Secondary Schools Activities Commission (SSAC) we have the opportunity to present the State Championship and Runners-up trophies to the final two teams and/or individuals in the championship events for each of the three classes (A, AA, AAA) in each sport. The individuals on each team also receive a Friends of Coal plaque to commemorate their and their team's achievements. We encourage our members to participate in these presentations and the remaining events include the following. Several members have already indicated their interest in participating and are noted in parenthesis. Please let Sandi know (304-342-4153) (
· SOFTBALL (May 22-23) Vienna, Jackson Park
· BASEBALL (May 30-June 1) Charleston, Appalachian Power Park
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West Virginia Coal Association
The West Virginia Coal Association has been the voice of the coal industry for over 100 years, advocating for safe, responsible mining practices and supporting the communities that depend on coal.
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