Coal news and updates

A coal company owned by a major supporter of Ohio Gov. John Kasich is accusing the governor’s administration of killing potential jobs by deliberating delaying a request for a permit to mine beneath a sliver of a state park. 

 

A subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp., largely owned by Robert E. Murray, considered the application for the permit “routine,” but claims it encountered delays and was forced to withdraw its application. 

 

A Murray official blamed Fred Shimp, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the agency that both owns Barkcamp State Park and oversees mining in Ohio, for "unexpected and unnecessary delays.” 

 

“The Ohio Valley Coal Co. simply could not afford to have its employees and equipment idled while ODNR deliberately delayed the processing of this routine permit application,” Murray’s Gary M. Broadbent wrote to The Dispatch. 

 

“Indeed, the permit was deliberately thwarted” by Shimp, said Broadbent, the company’s media director and assistant general counsel. Company officials also contacted Kasich’s office and other state officials to express concern, he said. 

 

ODNR spokesman Matt Eiselstein declined to address Broadbent’s claims that the agency deliberately dragged out ruling on the permit. 

 

“ODNR must practice its due diligence in assessing the impacts of the project. The permitting process cannot be rushed, and permits cannot be issued until we are certain that all of the required criteria have been met,” he said. 

 

“This includes, but is not limited to, safety measures, surface and ground water protections and any potential subsidence concerns,” Eiselstein said. 

 

Coal-mining permits typically take four to six months to approve or deny after applications are completed, Eiselstein said. That time period would have placed a ruling on Murray’s application between March and May. 

 

Broadbent said ODNR could have approved the company’s request for a permit within 61 days after its application was finalized, or earlier this month. 

 

Murray Energy no longer will be able to mine the area where it sought to expand an existing mine in Belmont County, potentially depriving miners and others of “years of highly paid, well benefited employment,” Broadbent said. 

 

Ohio Valley Coal applied Aug. 22 for a permit to expand a mine to encompass another 330 acres, including 16 acres beneath Barkcamp State Park. 

 

ODNR returned the application to the company to obtain more information and it was not completed and returned until the first week of November, Eiselstein said. There were no public objections to the permit before it was withdrawn on Jan. 15. 

 

Ohio Valley Coal hoped to tap into a new underground vein of coal near and under the state park while it still had equipment and employees working in a nearby mine that is nearly depleted, Broadbent said. 

 

But, it could no longer wait for a ruling from ODNR, he said, and relocated its operations to another mining area more than 10 miles away, “at tremendous cost and expense,” Broadbent said. 

 

Instead of expanding the nearly-empty mine and tapping coal under and near the park, Ohio Valley Coal will be “forced to permanently seal that portion of the mine” and never will be able to economically mine the area, he said. 

 

Coal company CEO Murray, who lives in Pepper Pike, is a major player in Republican politics in Ohio. 

 

He and his company's political-action committee have given about $200,000 in campaign donations to Kasich, other statewide GOP officeholders and state and local parties during the past five years. 

 

Murray and his company were designated as members of the governor’s “host committee” after the coal executive recently contributed $10,000 to Kasich’s fund for his inaugural festivities. 

 

Murray Energy, of St. Clairsville, is Ohio’s largest coal producer and the nation’s largest underground coal-mining company. Murray is known for objecting to air-pollution policies from the administration of Democrat President Barack Obama that he claims are killing coal as an energy resource. Murray calls global warming a hoax. 

 

 

Source: http://www.dispatch.com/