Alpha Natural Resources announced its affiliates’ mine rescue teams took top honors at the Southern West Virginia Mine Rescue Association Mine Rescue, First Aid, Bench & Preshift Contest and West Virginia State Championship. Forty-two teams competed in the event held August 27-30 at the MSHA mine academy in Beckley, W.Va.

The first day of the event focused on first aid. The teams were given problems and had to solve them while following proper procedures. The teams were then put to the test with two days of mine rescue scenarios and tests. Teams from West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Alabama participated.

The National Mining Association (NMA) and several other key trade associations filed an amicus curiae brief on Monday in Mingo Logan Coal Co. v. EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (appeals court).  The brief requests the court affirm the lower court’s favorable decision, which held unequivocally that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has no authority to retroactively veto Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).

A group of coal miners, their families and friends will be having an interstate rally to support the coal industry on Saturday, September 29, 2012 starting at 10:00am in Lawrence County, Ohio. The miners will caravan from West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia to Lawrence County, stopping briefly in Charleston and Huntington to add folks to the caravan.

The group will begin the day at 7 a.m. in the Logan WalMart parking lot off US 119 at the Fountainplace Mall. A rally and picnic in Ohio will follow a day of campaigning. If you are interested in going, please contact Shaun Adkins via the Miners for Romney Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/terry.headley1#!/events/143701149104754/

The grassroots support group, Friends and Families of Coal Miners, based in Boone and Logan counties, hosted its second successful rally this past Tuesday in Putnam County,  Partnering with the Citizens for Coal, Logan Coal Vendors Association, Friends of Coal and The COALition for Romney, the event drew an estimated 100 people to the Old Winfield Courthouse. Attendees heard from a variety of speakers about the Obama War on Coal and its impact on the people of our region.  Several local news affiliates had crews on hand for the event.

The group held an event earlier this month in Madison that drew well over 200 people to the Madison Civic Center and plans additional events in Logan, Lincoln and other counties over the next two months. For more information, check out the groups’ Facebook pages at:

Friends and Families of Coal              http://www.facebook.com/terry.headley1#!/groups/181696321963237/

Citizens for Coal                                   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Coal/302147546536332?ref=hl

Friends of Coal – West Virginia         http://www.facebook.com/friendsofcoal?ref=hl

Logan Coal Vendors Association       http://www.facebook.com/LoganCoalVendorsAssociation?ref=hl

The COALition for Romney                http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-COALition/265299486910146?ref=hl

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012.” The legislation packages five House bills crafted over the two years of the 112th Congress aimed at limiting regulations that affects coal and other industry, four of which were previously passed by the House.
•H.R. 3409, the Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act, to prevent the Secretary of the Interior from issuing new regulations that would adversely impact mining jobs;
•H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, passed in April 2011, would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act;
•H.R. 2401, the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, or TRAIN Act, passed in September 2011, would require analysis of the effects of proposed environmental regulations on manufacturing, energy prices and jobs;
•H.R. 2273, the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, passed in October 2011, curtailing the EPA's ability to regulate the disposal of coal ash from power plants; and
•H.R. 2018, Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, passed in July 2011, would limit EPA action with regard to state regulation of water quality.

The legislation previously passed by the Republican-controlled House has been stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The bill now moves to the Senate.