Charleston Gazette

Drug testing for miners to be mandatory

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin promised Wednesday night to seek more state mine safety improvements, but his list of proposals fell short of what independent investigators have said is needed to truly reform West Virginia's mining operations.

In a State of the State address that repeated Tomblin's strong allegiance to the coal industry, the governor also outlined his legislative response to investigative findings concerning the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster.

In a 2-1 decision, a U.S. District Court this week struck down the state’s congressional redistricting plan. The federal panel found that West Virginia's congressional redistricting plan didn't create sufficient equal districts and was therefore unconstitutional. The ruling gave state lawmakers until January 17 to redraw the districts or they would do it for the state.

In response, state officials indicate they will file an appeal of the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court or request a judge's stay that would allow the Legislature more time to come up with a court-approved plan.

The 2012 Regular Session of the West Virginia State Legislature will begin January 11 and run through March 10.  This year’s session will see some changes with leadership, but we expect it to be relatively smooth.

The key issues for the session from the perspective of the Association include congressional redistricting, developing a comprehensive drug testing policy for the mining industry and the development of manpower training opportunities for the mining industry.

Governor Tomblin will kick off the session with his first State of the State Address since being elected to complete the term of former Governor and now U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.  Tomblin will deliver the State of the State Address beginning at 7 pm on January 11.

Prior to the opening of the regular session, Interim meetings of the Legislature begin on Sunday, January 8. Discussion is expected to center around ways to address the recent U.S. District Court decision striking down the state’s congressional redistricting plan.

The 2012 WV Mining Symposium will begin on February 1 thru February 3^rd at the Charleston Civic Center.  Registration information was sent to all members on Monday and have been coming back into the Association at a steady clip.

The program will be finalized in the next week and will also be sent to all members via e-mail.  Please complete and return the registration form so all nametags will be available upon your arrival and we have good counts for all of functions.

Please contact Sandi at 304.342.4153 or e-mail: sdavison@wvcoal.com with any questions.

The new edition of Coal Facts will be sent to all members, legislators, key-government officials, all libraries, all chamber of commerces and media next week. The publication will once again feature all the annualized data for production, employment, distribution, coal severance taxes and other information, as well as features on the history of mining, an overview of surface and underground mining, post-mine land use and restoration efforts, and our annual award-winning operations.

A pdf copy of the publication will also be available online.