Tag Archives: West Virginia

Eastman Chemical sued over W.Va. chemical spill

Work continues around a storage tank with the chemical designation MCHM, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the chemical that leaked into the Elk River, at Freedom Industries storage facility in Charleston, W.Va., Monday, Jan. 13, 2014.

Work continues around a storage tank with the chemical designation MCHM, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the chemical that leaked into the Elk River, at Freedom Industries storage facility in Charleston, W.Va., Monday, Jan. 13, 2014.

Legal fallout from the accidental chemical spill that affected the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians has landed at the doorstep of Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical.
Eastman, a specialty chemicals manufacturer, is among the defendants named in a suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Charleston, W. Va., according to published reports.
The publicly traded company makes 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, the chemical that leaked into the Elk River in Charleston, W.Va., last week. MCHM is used in coal processing
The spill came from a storage tank at a Freedom Industries, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit.
Eastman has not commented on the lawsuit, according to the Wall Street Journal.
So far the company’s stock price has not suffered. Shares were 69 cents higher at $79.98 in early afternoon trading today.
Click here for a Bloomberg report on the legal fallout from the spill.
Click here for a Wall Street Journal report.

Reuters: S&P places Xinergy on CreditWatch

A mild winter hasn’t been good for Knoxville-based coal company Xinergy, says Standard and Poor’s.

The ratings agency said it is placing its Xinergy ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.

“The CreditWatch listing reflects our concern that  weak demand for thermal coal due to an unseasonably warm winter in the company’s regional end market result in lower-than-expected 2012 earnings, leading to additional deterioration of the company’s fragile liquidity position,” according to a report on the Reuter’s website.

Xinergy’s key has mining operations are in West Virginia and Kentucky. The company provides coal to electric utilities and industrial users.

Read more from Reuters here.

 

National Coal shareholders approve sale to Jim Justice

100110coal3.jpg.jpgIt’s official — National Coal Corp. shareholders on Thursday approved the sale of the Knoxville-based company to West Virgina businessman and coal baron Jim Justice.

Justice, who attended the University of Tennessee and graduated from Marshall University, will pay $1 per share, a 54 percent premium over National Coal’s closing price on Sept. 27, the day the sale was announced.

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