On October 1, 1969, country music legend and Kentucky native Loretta Lynn recorded “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in Nashville.
Coal is about 31 times cheaper than gasoline per unit of energy.
In the last 30 years, China moved an estimated 680 million people out of poverty by giving them access to modern energy, mostly powered by coal.
OBITUARY: Carol Raulston, 66, passed away September 16 after a lengthy illness. She was senior vice president communications at NMA from 2002 to 2013. A memorial service is scheduled for October 4 at Fellows, Helfenbein and Newman Funeral Home, 200 South Harrison St., Easton, Md. 21601.
Harry Childress is the new president of Virginia Coal & Energy Alliance. He can be reached at 276-889-2257 or by e-mail address at harry@virginiacoalenergy.com.
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell has made no secret of his plans, should he win re-election next month, and should he become Senate Majority Leader.
The latter will happen if McConnell defeats Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes and Republicans win a net of six Senate seats in November. McConnell has told audiences and reporters that, if he became Senate Majority Leader, he would seek to defeat President Obama’s legislative agenda by adding language to spending bills that would strip funding from projects the President supports.
A new episode of the Coal Seam television show is now airing. This episode features West Virginia Division of Energy Director Jeff Herholdt discussing current trends and issues related to the coal industry and energy.
The episode will be broadcast through most of October. It is available on the state Library Television Network at http://www.librarycommission.wv.gov/programs/ltn/videoserver/Pages/coalseam.aspx, as well as your local cable system’s public access channel. Locally it is on Suddenlink Channel 17.
According to weekly figures released by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), coal production in the United States was up 4.4% for the week ending September 27th. Production for the week was up more than 800,000 tons to 19,933,000 tons, from 19,100 tons for the same week in 2013. Production for the previous 52 weeks remains down, by 1.7% or almost 17 million tons, standing at 974.5 million tons.
West Virginia coal production fell for the 52 weeks ending September 27th by 1.5% at 112.98 million tons versus 114.67 million tons from 2013. Likewise, coal production in northern West Virginia for the same period was up 6.6% from 2013 to 45.15 million tons, up 2.7 million tons from the same period in 2013. Meanwhile, coal production in southern West Virginia was off 6.2% for the 52 weeks, 67.88 million tons in 2014 versus 72.31 million in 2013.