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Mines are closing and the coal industry is facing a run of bankruptcies and other bad news, but a company backed by a $90 million investment is defying conventional wisdom by preparing to open two new mines in Appalachia, the hardest-hit coal region. The mines in West Virginia and Virginia will create some 400 jobs in counties where unemployment ranges close to three times the national average, Ramaco Development CEO Randall Atkins told The Associated Press. "It's a fairly big deal, frankly, for southern West Virginia," Atkins said....

This Labor Day, America has 83,000 fewer coal jobs and 400 coal mines than it did when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, showing that the president has followed through on his pledge to “bankrupt” the coal industry. A 2015 study found the coal industry lost 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012 during Obama’s first term. During Obama’s second term, the industry employment in coal mining has fallen by another 33,300 jobs, 10,900 of which occurred in the last year alone, according to federal data. Currently, coal mining employs 69,460 Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown took a strong stand against coal on Friday, approving an East Bay lawmaker's bill to ban state funding for coal-related projects. In signing state Sen. Loni Hancock's bill, the governor also praised the Oakland City Council for voting to ban transportation of the ore through its city and encouraged other cities to do the same. "Other localities should follow suit -- and the state should, too -- to reduce and, ultimately, eliminate the shipment of coal through all California ports, Brown wrote in a signing message.

As a growing tide of Republicans distance themselves from their party’s presidential nominee, at least one Democratic candidate is doing the same thing to Hillary Clinton. West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice said “I cannot be a supporter of Hillary Clinton” during an appearance Monday on the state’s MetroNews radio network. Justice, a billionaire whose business interests include coal mining and West Virginia’s famed Greenbrier Resort, said he will not support the former secretary of state over her proposed energy policy. “The reason I can’t be is her position on coal is diametrically, completely wrong in many, many different...

Communities in nine U.S. states that have been hard-hit by coal layoffs are being promised more than 3,000 jobs in several industries through a multimillion-dollar federal grant. Officials for the Appalachian Regional Commission and other agencies announced the 29 projects totaling nearly $39 million Wednesday at a news conference in Huntington, West Virginia. The investments are expected to create or retain more than 3,400 jobs in agriculture, health care, manufacturing, technology and other industries. The projects are intended to help communities in Texas and in eight Appalachian states: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. …

Thee political world is all atwitter following Donald Trump’s statement last Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina that, “believe it or not,” he regrets having said “the wrong thing” in the past, “particularly where it may have caused personal pain,” a list which might include Heidi Cruz, Megyn Kelly, and Ghazala Khan. I was less astonished than most, however, because I noticed a substantial and important change in Mr. Trump’s campaigning more than week earlier. Although I mentioned it during my radio show, it seemed to go mostly unnoticed in the broader media, perhaps because of justifiable initial skepticism. In Abingdon,...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has surged to a 5-point lead over democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania as per a latest poll.

Less than a year after the coal industry was declared to be in terminal decline, the fossil fuel has staged its steepest price rally in over half a decade, making it one of the hottest major commodities. Cargo prices for Australian thermal coal from its Newcastle terminal, seen as the Asian benchmark, have soared over 35 percent since mid-June to more than one-year highs of almost $70 a tonne, pushed by surprise increases in Chinese imports. "Coal markets, after five years of declining prices, appear to have found a bottom in the first quarter," Australia's Whitehaven Coal said on Thursday,...

MORGANTOWN — Jeb Bush hit the campaign trail Tuesday for West Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Cole, a Donald Trump supporter in heavily pro-Trump coal country. Bush, who has said he won’t vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton for president, addressed a West Virginia business group Tuesday about fighting substance abuse, reforming the tax code, cutting regulations and overhauling the education system. But the former Florida governor’s speech largely avoided commentary on Trump, a bitter rival whose attacks became personal during a crowded Republican presidential primary. Bush also headlined a Cole fundraiser Tuesday evening. “I’d say that everybody has their...

The fate of the European Union’s global warming commitments negotiated as part of the Paris Protocol may be in jeopardy as result of Brexit. The U.S. on the other hand, should take a page out of the U.K.’s playbook and not only withdraw from the Paris agreement, but also withdraw participation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change altogether. ... countries made individual commitments to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, largely centered on shifting away from affordable natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and toward more expensive, intermittent, subsidy-dependent renewables. ... The...

China’s once-booming coal power sector is facing an existential challenge as continued breakneck expansion of new capacity is colliding with flattened growth in power demand, despite increasingly strenuous government efforts to put the brakes on new construction. According to a pair of new studies, China’s overcapacity in coal-fired generation could reach a staggering 400 GW by 2020—an amount larger than the total installed capacity of every other nation worldwide besides the U.S. ...plant utilization rates in China have been falling rapidly over the past several years. This is because while total thermal generation has barely changed since 2011—resulting from a...

Bill Clinton keeps telling coal workers to move on from the life “you had 50 years ago”—while his wife Hillary shouts, “I believe in science!” But isn’t it interesting that the “science” to which they cling is 2,000 years out-of-date? Greek Mathematician Hero of Alexandria invented the original windmill, a machine that harnessed wind for energy sometime around 50 AD. Do the math - 2016 minus 50 is 1,966—meaning windmill power is not “new” or “progressive” but a relic of 2,000 years ago. Truth hurts. Especially, if you’re a Clinton. Because Clintons prefer shadows to sunshine. When it was revealed...

KDKA posted the transcript: Delano: Can we bring back coal jobs as Donald Trump says? Can we bring back steel jobs? Clinton: Well, we can certainly bring back steel jobs because once we really handle the unfair trade practices that have undercut our steel industry causing layoffs and plant closures, we’re going to make it really clear to the rest of the world we’re not sitting by and watching our steel industry go any further down. Delano: But what about coal? Clinton: Coal is a different issue because we’ve got to figure out — is there a technology that can...

Hillary's solution for our struggling economy: Massive government spending. Massive tax increases and new taxes on individuals and corporations. Massive increase of regulations. Step up the war against coal, gas and oil. Bankrupt all traditional producers of energy. Massive new government spending on "green" technologies and "green" jobs. Bankrupt as many capitalist industries as possible. Implement universal government provided "free" healthcare. Double the minimum wage. Guarantee a minimum income to all "working" families (and non-working families). Free college education, free healthcare and free lunches for all. Open our borders, grant amnesty, citizenship, welfare and voting rights to all comers including...

"I misspoke when I said I misspoke: I really will put you out of business." —Satire When Hillary Clinton spoke at an Ohio town hall meeting during her primary campaign earlier this year, her flippant remark that she would “put a lot of coal miners outta work,” if she is elected President, was as welcome to coal miners as a skunk at a picnic. In an effort to un-ding the bell and reverse the political damage caused by her remarks (undoubtedly one of the reasons that 30,000 Democrats in Pennsylvania switched to the GOP in recent months) she quickly reversed...

Murray Energy Corp., the largest privately held coal miner in the U.S., has warned that it may soon undertake one of the biggest layoffs in the sector during this time of low energy prices. In a notice sent to workers this week, Murray said it could lay off as many as 4,400 employees, or about 80% of its workforce, because of weak coal markets. The company said it anticipates “massive workforce reductions in September.” The law requires a 60-day waiting period before large layoffs occur.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh recently joined 16 other state Attorneys General to launch, in their own words, “an unprecedented, multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute the ‘high-funded and morally vacant forces’ that have stymied attempts to combat global warming—starting with holding ExxonMobil and other industry giants accountable for fraud and suppression of key climate science.” In explaining his support of “AGs United for Clean Power,” Frosh said: “There is no doubt that climate change is an existential threat to our society and to our entire planet….I am deeply troubled that oil companies have contributed to the problem by intentionally...

The Interior Department is changing the way it values coal mined from public lands in the West to make sure mining companies are not shortchanging taxpayers on sales to Asia and other markets. […] Under rules in place since the 1980s, companies can sell the fuel to affiliates and pay royalties to the government on that price, then turn around and sell the coal at higher prices, often overseas. …

OMG! This is not only hilarious, it's awesome! Some of the smartest marketers are right among us. The Women Vote Trump SuperPAC is on it's way after creating this one. If all the other ones are like this in the future, Trump will have a formidable ally in this group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXfhGBRonRM How many of you laughed after watching this? How many times did you watch it? Don’t forget to follow the Wayne Dupree Show on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter. You can also listen to replays of the Wayne Dupree Show via Spreaker and iHeartRadio.

The coal was to take the form of small granules instead of irregular lumps, to produce a controlled and even burn, and the basket was altered to a mesh drum revolving on a vertical axis at 60 rpm. A jet of flame from tanks of bottled gas would fire into the basket once the P.13a had reached operating speed (above 320 km/h), whether by using a rocket to assist take off or by being towed. The air passing through the ramjet would take the fumes from the burning coal towards the rear where they would mix under high pressure with...