Brown makes Democrat Leadership Blue

Dissatisfaction with Government Priorities not specific to Massachusetts

Boardman, Ohio (1/20/10) – Donald Allen, a conservative Republican candidate for Ohio’s Sixth District, would like to extend his congratulations to the newly elected Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown.  Watching the results from his Boardman home, Dr. Allen realizes that the election yesterday has serious ramifications in Ohio and across the nation.


Allen, who has been meeting with voters throughout Ohio’s Sixth District since June of last year, has heard the same dissatisfaction expressed in Ohio that propelled Senator elect Scott Brown to victory in Massachusetts. With regards to Senator Brown’s victory, Allen declared, “This writing has been on the wall for awhile now. People are fed up with business as usual at their expense. That was my reason for running for President in 2008, not some grand illusion of getting into the White House, but to make the issues of today front and center on the national stage as best I could. That is also my reason for running for Congress this year, real leadership that tackles real issues that concern the people of this district.”


With job loss at an all-time high, attacks still being perpetrated against us and out of control spending that we can no longer afford, Don Allen believes that the growing resentment toward our government priorities is going to continue to rise.  “Our representatives need to take stock of the difference between party priorities and national priorities. Congressman Wilson has been sitting on the sidelines and not speaking up for the people of his district. It is time for the people of the Sixth District to have a voice in Congress that they can count on.” Allen said.


“We are on the cusp of a complete change in our government.” Allen declared. “It amazes me that the Democrats have lost touch so much, that they considered the Senate seat in Massachusetts theirs and not the peoples.  How hard is it to realize that the current policies coming out of Congress is not the will of the American people? People want to feel safe, they want a good job and they do not want their government dictating their every move. The people of the Sixth District are hardworking and motivated. They believe in an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. They want to make their contribution, not have it handed to them by a government bureaucrat. Between Cap and Trade and the current proposed ‘healthcare’ reform, people are not being given the chance to succeed, they are being penalized for it.”


To learn more about Don Allen and his views regarding economic development, national security and healthcare, please visit www.drallenforcongress.com .

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January 13th was quite a big day. I had arranged a tour of one of Bob Murray’s underground coal mines, and we set aside the whole day for the event. Ryan Murray, who is in charge of their Powhatan #6 Mine, met Donovan, Alex, and myself at Bob Evans (our official campaign restaurant) in St. Clairsville and led us to the mine complex. There we met with Kevin Hughes, mine superintendent, who took us to their meeting room where we received basic safety instructions for the tour, familiarizing us with rescue gear and procedures. We then donned coveralls, waterproof steel-toed boots, and a miner’s belt that held our rescue breather and headlamp battery pack.

Miners Dave and Jeff escorted our group, which included Ohio State Representative candidate Bill Behrendt, to the elevator that would take us 30 stories down to the mine.

To say the experience was awesome is an understatement. We caught the longwall shearer at the left end of the 950-foot wall of the coal face and witnessed the way it ate away at the coal deposit like a 32-inch meat slicer that moved back and forth along the wall, depositing the loosened coal on a conveyer that carried it down the tunnel and out of the mine. Huge, powerful ceiling jacks held up the area above the shearer as it worked, and then advanced behind it when the shearer moved further into the coal face. As the jacks advanced, the ceiling behind them would collapse, filling the void created.

Next stop was to the continuous miner, a machine that ate into the coal face head-on, creating the tunnels that we traveled in. Shuttle loaders would take on that machine’s coal and run it to a conveyer head to move it out of the mine. We also saw the machine that drilled holes in the tunnel roof to insert steel rods or cables that compressed the layers of rock above to create a stressed, multi-layer (like plywood), strong ceiling that is very resistant to collapse.

Nearly everything moves on rails in the mine, and as tunnels are abandoned, the rails are taken up to be reused elsewhere. The conveyer system throughout the mine is another marvel of industrial revolution that replaced the coal car and mule system long ago. Even that is being improved with a new type of fire-resistant belting.

We finished our mine tour about 4 p.m., then we were met by Jonathan Murray, who took us to the transloading facility on the Ohio River. There we met Rob Visnik, harbor manager, who explained how the coal was moved from the mine to the end users. Much of the coal is carried on three 67-car trains from the mine head to a dumping pit, where another conveyer takes the coal out to a loader that fills barges on the river. Like the mine, the train’s work 24/7, loading and emptying four trainloads a day.


Each miner’s job is a valuable asset to the community. Murray Energy Corporation is the biggest employer in the county, with nearly 500 people in the mine alone. For every miner, there are eleven (11) ancillary jobs in the community that depend on him. Lose a miner, and you soon lose eleven other jobs in the area.

After this experience I have a greater appreciation for the mining industry and am prepared to be a champion for coal energy in the 6th district. This trip helped me understand that safety is priority number one for both the miners and the management.

The workers in the mine were all in very high spirits and seemed to not only enjoy their jobs but took great pride in them. This was something that Ryan and Kevin told me they try to do, instill a sense of responsibility and ownership in their employees. By doing this they help create an environment for successful working relationships between union workers and non-union management.

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Company’s like First Energy are vital to the continued growth and future of our 6th district. Utilizing the resources we have here at home, like coal which is used in the Sammis Power Plant, is necessary in achieving true energy independence.

I spent a day visiting the Sammis power plant and touring the facility. This plant is the largest  of First Energy’ in ohio. It Employs over 400 people and produces over 2,233 MW of electricity. While touring this facility I saw  the retrofitting which First Energy did to this plant which has enabled it to be more Eco-friendly. Proving that coal power can provide the energy necessary to power this great country, and the 6th district has the work ethic and drive to achieve energy independence.

We met Bob Bertram at 8 a.m. and went to the plant director’s office to get hard hats and eye protection.  We met with the director, Jon Zoppelt, then headed out to see the plant’s operation from beginning to end.  Bob drove us to the outside coal storage yard first.  A 60-day supply is usually kept here.  Coal is transported to the site via barge up the Ohio River, and by rail.  The huge piles were being worked over by two yellow Caterpillar bulldozers, and the coal was picked up underground by feeder conveyors taking it into the plant.

Once inside the coal is crushed to a fine “face powder,” which moves on to be burned in the huge boiler.  Through a complex system of boiler and super heaters, water is turned into steam, which powers giant turbines as the steam expands, cools, and transfers its power into shaft power to turn the generators.  The generators, seven of them, can create a total of 2,316 megawatts of electricity, about 40 percent of First Energy Ohio Edison Systems’ total generating capacity. Newest improvements to the plant are sulfur dioxide “scrubbers,” which use ammonia, limestone, a catalyst to take this coal contaminant from exhaust gasses.  A byproduct of this process is the production of gypsum, and a technological marvel in itself is the 2.4-mile long continuous conveyor belt that will take the gypsum up the hill behind the plant to a reclaimed strip-mine area.

We saw where cooling water is taken in from the Ohio River, passing through a moving screen belt that minimizes clogging risk.  Next we stepped inside one of the enormous smokestacks, one of which rises 1,000 feet into the sky.  Not just a single hollow tube, there are actually three smaller pipes inside that carry away heated air.

Bechtel Corporation and Babcock & Wilcox are the primary construction companies handling the plant’s improvements.

As coal inventories increase across the nation (WSJ Nov. 30, 2009, “Coal Glut Rocks Mining Companies“) and coal prices sink to 57% of last year’s prices, I wonder if the Democrats objective in Washington, at the behest of the White House Administration’s request, to destroy the coal industry is possible.  A recent announcement by Progress Energy (WSJ Dec. 2, 2009, “Progress To Shutter 11 Plants Using Coal“) to convert eleven of its plants from coal to natural gas by 2017 is ominous.  What becomes of the coal mines and miners that now provide coal to those plants?  Progress is planning on building two new nuclear-power plants over the next ten years, but will that be allowed?

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