72 Workers Affected

Alliance Resource Partners LP cited lower demand as the reason for idling the unit. The continuous mining unit is one of four at the Van Lear mine in Kentucky.

Sources:
Reuters

Will this have the answer?

The Tennessee Valley Authority is set to release the study which was performed by Bill Walton, a third-party engineering consultant. Massive scrutinization will ensue.

Sources:
The Washington Post

Blankenship Challenges Hansen

Last Saturday a Hollywood actress and a NASA scientist appeared along with a few hundred other protesters deep in southern West Virginia to protest coal mining. Of course, the protest had to take place at the doorstep of an operational mine owned by Massey where a couple of hundred mining supporters stood. Luckily, the outcome of this inherently dangerous event was better than it could have been.

The volatility of the atmosphere was evident throughout the protest. The frustrations exhibited included cursing, name-calling, stopping traffic by sitting in the main road, and one arrest for battery.

Prior to the protest, Massey CEO Don Blankenship invited a debate with Dr. James Hansen, a NASA scientist who was among those arrested last Saturday. To our knowledge this request remains unanswered.

Sources:
The Register Herald

Remember former country-crooner turned environmental evangelist Ashley Judd? Those of us here in the Appalachians are certainly familiar with her.

We at the Coal Energy Now team invite you to enjoy the melodrama Mrs. Judd seems born to exude as evidenced by the sappy dialog filling this video.  Lines with too many words spoken slowly like the mountains dying "so fast, my friends, so shockingly fast" and other frenzy-inducing phrases.

You can thank us later.

WATE TV 6 includes coverage of the recent ruling in favor of mountaintop mining in their series "The Cost of Coal".  Read about the ruling in our previous posts here.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin recently sat down with the editorial board of a local newspaper and dished about the state's coal industry, nuclear energy, environmentalists and obstructionists.  Highlights include Governor Manchin's wish to have nuclear power as a part of West Virginia's energy portfolio and the balance that can be achieved when working with environmentalists.

Read the story in the Register Herald.

They must either adapt or be be left behind according to West Virginina Senator Jay Rockefeller.  This directive was the result of Rockefeller's urging coal operators to support a bill he introduced for the development of renewable energy sources in West Virginia.

Read the details at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

After surveying the massive coal ash spill in Tennessee, Senator Lamar Alexander recommends a faster transition into nuclear power and renewable energy sources.  However, Alexander concedes that coal must be the primary source of electrical energy for the near future.

Read the story at macon.com.

This time the unfavorable forecast comes from the president of the National Mining Association in a speech given to the West Virginia Coal Assocation today.

Read how much he expects production will drop in BusinessWeek.

Members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal River Mountain Watch environmentalist groups are denouncing the federal ruling last Friday that went in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The environmentalists claim that the courts are not listening to the scientists who are debunking the Corps' efforts to mitigate the loss of streams covered by the process of mountaintop removal.

Read our post about the Friday's ruling here.

Read more about the responses from environmentalists at SustainableBusiness.com.