Federal actions meant to limit the mining and burning of Appalachian coal are reaching unprecedented levels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and other agencies are seemingly doing all they can to put the coal industry – and the economic benefits it provides to our state and region – out of business.

U. S. Senator Joe Manchin will be the featured speaker for a Roundtable Discussion on the Impact of the Federal Government on the Appalachian Coal Industry on Wednesday, April 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Walker Training Building at Walker Machinery in Belle, WV.

Hosted by FACES of Coal, in conjunction with the WV Coal Association and Friends of Coal, the event seeks input from coal economy stakeholders to discuss and determine the effect of EPA, OSM and other federal agencies policies on the West Virginia and Appalachian economy.

Given your role in West Virginia’s coal economy, your input is needed for this important discussion. Please plan to attend. RSVP by Monday, Apr. 9 by emailing Bryan Brown at bryan@browncomm.com.

DIRECTIONS:

The Walker Training Building is located in Belle at 1400 E DuPont Avenue, Belle, WV 25015. Coming from Charleston, take US Rt. 60 to the Midland Trail exit. Follow the road underneath the underpass, cross the railroad tracks and take a left on DuPont Avenue. The Walker Training Building sits on the right.

Despite coal production slowing and severance taxes heading downward, state sales tax revenues are surprisingly high, according to West Virginia Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow. He says withholding taxes are up more than nine percent and personal income tax and sales tax revenues were both above where state officials estimated they would be for the month. Muchow says he expects coal production to continue to slow through 2012 and into the next fiscal year. The state's general revenue fund had an $8.6 million shortfall in March, but according to Muchow the state is still on track for a sizable surplus this year. For more click here

The Friends of Coal is once again joining with the West Virginia Radio Corporation and MetroNews to sponsor the WV Scholars Program. Friends of Coal will be the title sponsor of the scholarship program. The program is a full, four-year scholarship covering the cost of tuition, fees, room and board at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Valued at $125,000, the scholarship will be awarded to one lucky student from West Virginia who is currently a member of the junior class in high school.

You can apply for the scholarship by going to www.wvmetronews.com and click on the “Apply Now” button for the complete program details.

The elections this November will be the most important in history for the mining industry. Control of the White House and both houses of Congress are in play and the implications for the future of mining are far-reaching.

With this much at stake, we want to encourage your distribution of NMA’s Mine the Vote program information to your employees, vendors and other business partners to help educate and mobilize mining community voters this fall. It is vital that our supporters are fully engaged and equipped with the tools and information to make sure mining’s voice is heard on November 6. 
We have re-designed and enhanced our Mine the Vote online platform to achieve these goals by allowing our supporters to:

Planning is continuing for this year’s WV Coal Association/Friends of Coal State Journal insert. This special publication will print in late-July. It is a great opportunity to get the message out that coal is and will remain the economic bedrock of the state’s economy. This past year’s edition included production, employment, coal severance data, membership profiles, editorial features and other key information.

We are in the process of developing an editorial plan for this publication. If you have a story idea, would like to submit something for consideration or would like to reserve advertising space, please check out the following editorial calendar.

• Deadline for materials: May 25 (This is for all articles, photos, graphs, cover, etc)
• Ad Space Deadline: June 1. (Please contact sales at the State Journal)
• Deadline for ads: June 8 (Coordinate through the State Journal)
• Layout/Changes/Approval Process: June 8-15 (Last minute changes)
• Publication Prints: July 23
• Publication Distributed: July 27