Industry attack hardly lays a glove on WVU coal cost study

By Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette

Over the last few weeks, there have been a lot of rumblings from folks in the coal industry about the big West Virginia University study that concluded the adverse health effects of coal mining in Appalachian far outweigh the industry’s economic contribution to the region.

Roger Nicholson, vice president and general counsel of International Coal Group, starts out in his Sunday Gazette-Mail commentary by saying Ward's initial coverage of the study ignored “some key facts” and held WVU researcher Michael Hendryx and his co-author, Melissa Ahern of Washington State University, to a “much lower standard of factual rigor than [the Gazette] would a pro-coal industry study.”

Ken Ward analyzes these and criticisms to the WVU study in his blog, Coal Tattoo. Read here.

Read the original study here