The Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce is comprised of approximately 525 member firms that employ many citizens in Mercer and Tazewell Counties, as well as surrounding areas in both West Virginia and Virginia. We believe in a strong and diversified business sector, and one that includes a strong energy industry.
We would like to thank the various political leaders throughout West Virginia who met recently with Governor Manchin and agreed to put differences aside to form a unified front in opposing the latest EPA “reviews” of coal mining permits. Efforts to hurt the industry, such as the EPA's decision to indefinitely hold up 23 mining permits in West Virginia, will only cause economic hardships, lost jobs and revenue problems.
Our community benefits from West Virginia being an energy state, and we must protect the continued production and use of coal to maintain as much domestic energy production as possible, given the alternative. Impeding future coal mining will result in lost jobs and higher utility rates prices, bringing about new economic hardships, and a lower standard-of-living that we cannot afford.
The Board of Directors of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce applauds our elected leaders as they keep up the fight to safeguard West Virginia's coal mining.
Marc Meachum
President & CEO
Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce
