The public outreach effort of the Friends of Coal continued this past week with two events.  WVCA Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton spoke this week’s breakfast meeting of the Vandalia Rotary Club in Charleston.  Hamilton talked to the crowd about the current state of West Virginia’s coal industry, as well as the impact of the Obama Administration’s GHG standards on the economy of the state. Hamilton then took questions from the crowd.  All-in-all it was an excellent turnout and event.         

WVCA ‘s Executive Staff also attended the 100th Anniversary of the West Virginia Mining Extension Service in Morgantown on Thursday.

“That West Virginia’s flagship university has had a mining training program in place for 100 years clearly shows the importance of the industry to the state and the nation,” WVCA President Bill Raney said. “It has trained tens of thousands of the nation’s best miners over its history – people who have literally helped build this nation and we are proud to have been part in this celebration.”

The Annual Fall Meeting will be held in Morgantown on October 31 – November 1 at the Waterfront Hotel.  November 1^st will be Energy Industry Appreciation Day at the WVU v. TCU football game with special pricing for all those who work in the energy industries. Please mark your calendars.  Contact the Association office for details. 

A repeat of last winter's deep freeze could lead to electricity blackouts in a clutch of states spanning the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic as proposed environmental regulations propel a switch toward natural gas-fired power.

PJM Interconnection, a regional grid operator, proposed new measures aimed at ensuring it doesn't again flirt with losing 22 percent of its electricity capacity as it did during the "polar vortex" in early January. Echoing the concerns of Republicans and some centrist Democrats who have admonished the Obama administration for rules that would restrain the use of coal-fired power, PJM noted the situation could become direr under a "rapid transition" from coal to natural gas.

According to the latest information from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, coal production in the United States fell by 5.5 percent for the week ending August 30 compared to the same time last year. Production for the week stood at 19.2 million tons compared to 20.3 million tons in 2013.

Coal production for the 52 weeks ending August 30 was also off by 1.8 percent, from 993 million tons in 2013 to 974 million tons this year.  This reduced production was reflected in the number of rail cars loaded, which fell by 7.1 percent year over year, from 86,674 cars loaded in 2013 to 84,719 cars in 2014.

The Friends of Coal social media network is continuing its unprecedented growth, adding another 1,300 fans over the past 15 days, bringing our total footprint to 86,536 fans. During that period we made 848 posts and received 18,100 incoming comments from 10,900 unique users. In total, we garnered 783,000 impressions during the two-week period – down slightly from our previous report.