The Governor’s Energy Summit, sponsored by the WV Governor’s Office and the WV Department of Commerce is a one-day conference, entitled West Virginia:  Energy Powering Economic Development, will be held on Tuesday, December 6, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Stonewall Resort.  It will feature presentations on energy independence and security, carbon challenges, alternative fuels, and coal and natural gas resources.

For registration purposes, an online link has been established at:  www.energywv.com/energysummit.

This online link is for conference attendance only.  Should you require lodging, please contact the Stonewall Resort directly at (304) 269-7400.  A block of rooms is being held for the evening of December 5 for the “Governor’s Energy Summit” at a rate of $99/night.  All reservations should be made no later than Saturday, November 19.

Rep. David B. McKinley, R-W.Va., became the first-ever freshman member of Congress to be named a recipient of the Annual Achievement Award by the prestigious Washington Coal Club (WCC) on Wednesday.

McKinley was honored due to his strong advocacy for the continued use of coal alongside House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., according to a news release from McKinley's office. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Dr. Janos Beer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Staff
Charleston Civic Center

Since 1988, Craig Calhoun has attended annual West Virginia University basketball games at the Charleston Civic Center.

Calhoun, a season ticket holder, was again at the Civic Center Tuesday night when WVU faced Morehead State.

It was the first game on the new floor at the Civic Center sponsored by the Friends of Coal.
Calhoun says the floor, which features three silhouettes of West Virginia coal miners, is a good representation of the state.

"It will give a lot of recognition to the state," Calhoun said.  "I like the paint job.  I like the floor."
Calhoun's friend and fellow season ticket holder Alan Petty had one word to describe the floor: "Awesome."

A new batch of emails purportedly stolen from the servers at the University of East Anglia were posted online Tuesday, echoing the 2009 data breach dubbed "Climategate" that turned the world's attention to the internal debates among scientists hoping to determine whether man's actions are warming the planet.

Excerpts from the emails posted on climate skeptic websites are certainly eye-opening:

<1939> Thorne/MetO: Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. We need to communicate the uncertainty and be honest.

<3066> Thorne: I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it, which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run.

<4755> Overpeck: The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out.

The Civic Center has a brand new basketball floor that has a rich history and will reflect the proud tradition of West Virginia’s coal miners everywhere. The new court is 120 feet by 60 feet and is constructed of First Grade Northern Hard Maple and was used in the last two NCAA Final Four Women’s Basketball Tournament held in Indianapolis in 2011 and San Antonio in 2010.  It was refurbished by Connor Sports Floors of Chattanooga, Tennessee and installed yesterday.  The first game to be played on this new court will be this coming Tuesday when West Virginia hosts Morehead State.

The floor features a very distinctive, yet familiar, design that is symbolic of the relationship between the State of West Virginia and coal mining.  The floor features a black perimeter and large orange outline of our state with the silhouettes of three coal miners.