The Association filed comments earlier this week regarding the proposal from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add streams to the 303(d) list of impaired waters for the State of West Virginia.

EPA published a notice in the Federal Register on Monday, April 8, 2013 in which it proposed adding 255 additional stream segments to the list of impaired waters for the State of West Virginia.  On March 25, 2013 EPA notified the state by letter that it was partially disapproving the state’s proposed 303(d) list of impaired waters.  EPA’s partial disapproval was based on the state’s decision not to place additional streams on the list of impaired waters for biological impairment using the West Virginia Stream Condition Index (WV SCI).

According to U.S. International Trade Commission data for Jan-Mar 2013, U.S. coal exports were up 11.2% y/y to 31.8 million tons. Metallurgical coal exports for this period increased 4% y/y to 18.2 million tons. The y/y growth is primarily attributable to thermal coal exports, which were up 23% y/y to 13.6 million tons for the same period. The March 2013 export figure totaled 13.6 million tons, up from 8.6 million in tons in February and represented the single largest ever month for U.S. coal exports.

In recent years, natural gas has competed more effectively with coal as a fuel for electricity generation as the cost of operating natural gas-fired generators fell below the cost of operating coal-fired generators in some regions, changing the least-cost dispatch ordering of available units. EIA's most recent outlook shows how generation market shares respond to changing fuel prices.

In 2011, West Virginia -- the second-largest U.S. coal producer -- accounted for 25 percent of the country's 91,611 coal jobs. By 2012, the number of miners or coal-related workers in West Virginia who applied for unemployment benefits had nearly tripled to almost 6,000.

But not all is lost. Hydraulic fracturing has made tapping into shale gas a viable endeavor, and the losses in coal could be more than made up by the gains in shale. About 3.5 million jobs will be created by 2035 as the United States exploits its shale reserves, a 2012 study by IHS Global Insight estimated

The 2013 National Coal Mine Rescue, First Aid, Bench and Pre-shift Competition will be held from September 9-12 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The four-day competition includes team competitions for Mine Rescue and First Aid and individual competitions for Bench and Pre-shift.

The event begins on Monday, Sept. 9, at 7 a.m., with First Aid team competition and Bench individual competition. The Mine Rescue team competition will be held Tuesday, Sept. 10 - Wednesday, Sept. 11, beginning at 7 a.m. each day. The Pre-shift individual competition will be held Thursday, Sept. 12, at 7 a.m. The event concludes with an Awards Banquet on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m., in the Battelle Grand Ballroom at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.  Registration is open until June 15, 2013. To compete in any of the competitions (team or individual), each person must be employed by a coal company.

Please contact Moya Phelleps at mphelleps@nma.org<mailto:mphelleps@nma.org> for additional information.