Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and Friends of Coal joined with members of the West Virginia Business & Industry Council (BIC) for an early voting day in Charleston Friday.

“We urge everyone who can’t make it to the polls on May 14 to stop by their local courthouse and take advantage of early voting in this very important election,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “To take part in early voting, a voter must be registered to vote in the upcoming election and have his or her identification.”

Early voting continues through Wednesday, May 11.Need to find your Early Vote location?  Contact your County Clerk CLICK HERE

Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Friends of Coal joined Senator Joe Manchin for the recent South Charleston stop of his “Common Sense” tour. Manchin talked about the current budget crisis and his determination to address the problem, while protecting the nation’s safety net.  “Left unchecked, our exploding national debt will paralyze this nation,” he said. “It will cost us countless jobs. It will derail critical programs like Social Security and Medicare.”

Manchin also addressed the efforts some have made to criticize efforts to curb the budget by scaring seniors and people who depend on the nation’s social safety net.

“Talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare scares people, but they will be protected,’ Manchin said. “If you are 35 or younger, there will be some adjustments, but it is not going to change things for people who have been paying into those programs for a long time.”

Manchin vowed, however, that he will not vote for the critical bill that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling “until we have a long-term fix.”

The 2011 Class of the West Virginia Coal Hall of Fame will be announced at the joint meeting of the West Virginia Coal Association and the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute. The meeting will be held May 5 – 7^th at the Embassy Suites in Charleston, with the Hall of Fame banquet on the evening of May 6^th.

Those being inducted are:  Robert “Bob Raines; Johnson C. McKinley; Parnel “Judge” McWhorter and J. Robert Fletcher.

Meeting registration may be obtained through the WV Coal Mining Institute by e-mail to wjspaw@mail.wvu.edu.

The Mingo County Redevelopment Authority (MCRA) will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the TransGas Development Systems, coal-to-liquids (CTL) facility Monday, May 9 at 11 a.m. More details will follow as the plans are finalized. The ceremony will be conducted on the project site at Gilbert Creek near Wharncliffe.

According to Mike Whitt, director of the MCRA, the project will employ more than 2,000 construction workers during the three to four year development phase, with approximately 300 direct jobs at the facility once construction is complete.

“These will be very skilled, good-paying jobs and this project is projected to triple the tax base of Mingo County,” Whitt said.  “It is exactly what our land use master plan calls for – diversification, good jobs and good taxes. This will be the first one in the nation and to think it is happening in Mingo county is unimaginable. It is a Godsend for a region that needs it. We are so grateful to the owner, Adam Victor, for his commitment to this project, to Mingo County and to our state.”