Alpha announces layoffs in southern coalfields

Alpha Natural Resources announced plans Friday to idle a pair of surface mines in southern West Virginia.

The company said workers at surface mines in Logan and Mingo counties were notified they would be losing their jobs in April. They work for Alpha subsidiary Highland Mining Company.

The company said approximately 100 workers would be furloughed.

The layoffs are blamed on market conditions and federal regulations.

Hatfields, McCoys make moonshine legally W.Va.

Direct descendants of the Hatfields and McCoys are producing legal moonshine, the start of a new legacy for the families made famous for their 19th-century feud.

Using the original recipe of Hatfield family patriarch William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, batches of the "Drink of the Devil" are made at a licensed distillery in the southern West Virginia community of Gilbert. Hatfield & McCoy Moonshine ships to six states.

Chad Bishop, husband of Hatfield's great-great-great granddaughter, oversees the business. Among those lending knowledge and elbow grease to the daily functions are Bishop's wife, Amber, and her mother, Nancy Hatfield, the oldest living descendant of "Devil Anse."

Ronald McCoy, a great-great grandson of McCoy patriarch Randolph McCoy, was a consultant for the distillery's startup and the product's testing and marketing.

Automakers recall more than 2M vehicles for faulty air bags

More than 2 million Toyota, Chrysler and Honda vehicles are being recalled for a second fix for faulty air bags that may inadvertently inflate while the car is running.

The recall includes some Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Avalon models made from 2002 to 2004.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says all the vehicles covered in Saturday's announcement had already been under a recall for the faulty air bags, but the carmakers' original attempts to fix the defects only worked about 85 percent of the time.

The new recall will fully replace the faulty electronic control unit, which is made by TRW Automotive Holdings Corp of Livonia, Mich. In the previous recall the unit was only partially replaced.

The new remedy will be available to all affected vehicles by the end of the year.

The agency says about 1 million Toyota and Honda vehicles involved in the new recalls are also subject to a separate recall related to defective air bags made by Takata Corp. of Japan. 

Those air bags can deploy and rupture with enough force to cause injury or death.

Post office damaged in McDowell County fire

The state Fire Marshal’s Office is scheduled to be on the scene Monday to investigate a Friday night fire that damaged the building that houses the U.S. Post Office in the McDowell County town of Maybeury.

Firefighters said flames were showing from the building when they arrived on the scene at a little before 11 p.m. Friday.

Residents who get their mail at Maybeury can pick it up at the Northfork Post Office.

Coal operator predicts current struggles will continue

The U.S. coal market has always been a boom or bust industry. During the past 100 years good times and hard times have gone hand-in-hand in coal towns across West Virginia, but the present hard times appear different for some operators.

“I think it’s different this time for central Appalachia,” said Jim Bunn II, co-owner of Coal River Energy. “Yes, we’re competing with gas and that has taken some of our market share for power generation, but coal production in the Illinois basin has replaced more central Appalachian coal than gas has and that will continue to be that way.”

During the 1980s when the Clean Air Act was in its infancy the new law required power plants to meet certain SO2 emission levels. The least expensive answer in those days was to buy coal with a lower sulfur content. The regulations crushed coal production in southern Illinois and northern Appalachia mines. Power companies sought the low sulfur coal of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky which was within compliance.

“Power companies could pay for central Appalachian coal and not add a billion dollar piece of equipment to their power plant and still comply,” Bunn said. “Now, all coal has to be scrubbed so why buy the compliance coal when you can buy the cheaper Illinois basin coal.”

The costs of production in the central Appalachian region, which includes the southern West Virginia coalfields, has steadily increased. Bunn blamed an array of factors. The EPA’s intensified regulations are only part of the story. Bunn said EPA has impacted the market for coal, but he said MSHA requirements have impacted their direct costs of mining.

“After the Sago disaster Congress passed the Miner Act. There were a lot of components to that act that really didn’t improve mine safety, they just added cost,” he said.

Bunn pointed toward the required purchase of additional Self-Contained Self-Rescuers to be stored underground as one of those costs.

“It would probably kill you to consume as many as we have for all the miners. They were a thousand dollars a piece. You buy a thousand of them and there’s a million dollars,” he said. “Most of them are never used, ever. You hope you never have to use them.”

Bunn said the downturn hasn’t been enjoyable. He was forced to downsize his operations in Boone and Lincoln counties from 450 workers to 100 in the past year. He called the effort one of the more painful experiences of his life because it affected so many families.

“We’ve reached this point that we’re not competitive at $40-a-ton any more,” he said.

The one bright spot seems to be the coal of northern Appalachia, which includes some northern West Virginia mines will continue to be marketable into the future under the current conditions.

Lights, camera, legislative action

West Virginians who have an interest in what their senators and delegates are doing at the statehouse in Charleston during the 60-day regular session of the legislature can now click their mouse and see for themselves. Video of daily floor sessions of the House and Senate are now streamed to the legislative website.

“We’ve got five cameras in each chamber. By the 30th day of the session we expect to have all five cameras up and functioning,” said Legislative Services Coordinator Aaron Allred. “Right now, the center camera in the back in both chambers is broadcasting live to the public. We get a wide shot of the whole chamber while we get all of the kinks worked out of the system.”

The upgrade was viewed as an important step by lawmakers and Allred who said open government is better government. The audio of the sessions has been streamed to the Internet for several years. The video was a logical step in the progression.

The cost of the new program was $500,000, but $100,000 was funded by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

“That’s about 30 cents per West Virginian,” said Allred. “I’m not going to tell you it’s cheap, but I think access to a legislature statewide is a very important goal.”

Allred said no decisions have been made about possibly expanding the program to also stream video from committee meetings to the web. The audio is streamed from the major committee rooms.

Allred said it’s a worthwhile effort and something the legislature has always wanted to do. 

DeLong says move regional jail workers out from under Civil Service

The top man with West Virginia’s Regional Jail Authority is suggesting lawmakers give his agency more autonomy and flexibility in personnel matters.

Regional Jail Authority Director Joe DeLong suggests the civil service system under which the authority now operates is creating more problems than it’s fixing.

“This Civil Service system is the last, looming bureaucratic structure that we fall under, ” he said. “It’s really not doing anything to help our employees, it’s actually holding them back. On top of that it’s increasing our risk, so while our employees aren’t becoming better compensated, the taxpayers are paying more because of that risk.”

The risk, according to DeLong involves forced overtime, additional training, an exhausted and overworked staff which lends itself toward injuries and workers’ comp expenses, along with high turnover.

DeLong said other moves made by his agency on their own have saved millions of dollars and they have been able to reduce the per diem below the level it was a decade ago.

Ironically, DeLong was a member of the House of Delegates when the Regional Jail employees were extended Civil Service protection. He acknowledged his support of House Bill 2253 in 2007. He said the aim at the time was well-intended, but history has shown it was a bad move. He said the results of the legislative actions were increased risk, higher costs, hindered salaries and accelerated turnover.