This week, FirstEnergy announced the closing of three coal-fired power plants because of the EPA’s new tougher air pollution standards. The power stations at Albright in Preston County, Rivesville in Marion County and Willow Island in Pleasants County are shutting down, putting over 100 people out of work.

FirstEnergy said it would cost too much to update these plants with the pollution control equipment necessary to meet EPA’s rules. These are old facilities and their days were numbered, but the EPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) hastened their demise.

The closings are a tough blow for those communities; jobs are lost and tax revenue from the utilities will dry up.

The Friends of Coal completed work on two new radio spots since the last Coal Bits – one focused on the Coal Symposium and another “Welcome Home” spot for our recently returned National Guard units, recognizing their service during the first period in which all units have been home from deployment since the War on Terror began almost 11 years ago.

Listen for them on your local radio station.

By Bill Raney, president

West Virginia Coal Association

Washington is broken. That much is obvious even to a sixth grader. While far too many Americans struggle with months or even years of unemployment, with foreclosure, with skyrocketing energy and food prices, there is a growing sense that nobody in Washington is listening.

Americans are increasingly fed up with “business as usual” in Washington. They want leaders with common sense, someone who puts the country ahead of party loyalty or some political agenda – someone who says what they think but is willing to listen as well as talk.

West Virginians are lucky.  Sen. Joe Manchin is just that kind of leader.

What the administration requires will cost Americans a ton of money

The supporters of the Obama administration have a clear vision of the nation's energy future. It involves windmills and solar arrays - but not coal. They don't like carbon.
The administration takes no responsibility for whether the resulting power supply will be adequate, reliable or affordable. Accordingly, it has tasked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to kill the coal industry and coal-burning utilities as rapidly as possible through regulation.
Out in America, however, people are responsible for whether Americans have power they can afford.