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Updated 32 minutes ago
CNX Coal Resources on Tuesday issued “temporary” layoffs to 200 employees at its Bailey mine complex in southwestern Pennsylvania.
CNX Coal, a Canonsburg-based spinoff of industry giant Consol Energy Inc., attributed the cuts to a ruling by the state Environmental Hearing Board restricting a portion of its mining operations in Greene County.
The state board impeded operations and posed safety challenges for employees by restricting mining within 100 feet of Kent Run stream in Ryerson Station State Park, CNX officials said. The oversight body required the company to move one of its two longwalls at the Bailey complex, which includes three underground mines that can produce up to 11.5 million tons of thermal and metallurgical coal a year.
CNX Coal is appealing the decision.
“We believe the EHB decision is patently wrong,” Chuck Shaynak, senior vice president of operations for CNX Coal, said in a statement. “We have and continue to operate safely and compliantly within existing Pennsylvania and federal law and are hopeful that our appeal of the decision will prevent further and more permanent impacts to our workforce in the future.”
Employees learned about the layoffs, which were effective immediately, early Tuesday, CNX Coal officials said.
A spokesperson for the state Environmental Hearings Board could not be reached.
Rachel Gleason, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, lamented the affected positions while standing by CNX Coal's assertion that the state board made a “patently wrong” decision she hopes will be overturned through appeal.
“We're always disappointed when there has to be layoffs,” Gleason said. “We're hoping we bore the brunt of them already.”
After a rough few years for the industry, positive signs have pointed to stabilization and growth in certain areas, Gleason said. She noted the metallurgical coal market, in particular, appeared to rebound in the last two quarters of 2016.
Still, coal providers and related companies are confronting challenges and cutbacks amid regulatory crackdowns and competition from the natural gas industry.
In August, Caterpillar Inc. laid off 155 workers as the struggling industrial machinery maker looked to sell its mining equipment business.
Consol — the nation's fifth-largest coal producer just five years ago — has been shifting its focus in recent years from coal to natural gas exploration and production, or E&P. Its last coal presence is the Bailey mine complex, which as a whole employs almost 2,000 people.
Consol in 2013 sold its five large West Virginia coal mines to Ohio-based Murray Energy and last year sold its metallurgical coal mine in Buchanan, Va., to West Virginia-based Coronado Coal for $420 million.
Consol executives said in an earning call last month they will separate completely from the coal industry in 2017 through one of three options: sell the Bailey complex to a third party; spin it off to shareholders; or divest until CNX Coal becomes majority-owner of the Bailey complex, of which it already owns 25 percent.
Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8514 or nlindstrom@tribweb.com.
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