Published: May 07, 2008 10:21 pm         

Beckley, mayor and coal getting national attention

Beckley, the coal industry and Mayor Emmett Pugh are coming in for some national attention this week.

Just how much and when remained uncertain Wednesday at the headquarters of CNN.

But a crew from the network set up temporary shop a day earlier in Pugh’s office to talk about coal mining and what role it should play in the next president’s energy policy.

Even Pugh’s beloved Crimson Tide fell into the 40-minute discussion.

Handling the interview was CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns, no stranger to West Virginia, since he earned a degree in political science at Marshall University and was a news reporter-anchor in 1980 at WSAZ-TV in Huntington. Johns received two National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Awards and holds a law degree from American University. He is a member of the board of Marshall’s Yeager Scholars.

Pugh’s interview is to be aired on Anderson Cooper’s 360 show, anchored by a 15-year, globetrotting newsman and author of the New York Times best-selling “Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival.”

That program airs at 10 p.m. daily, and Pugh was advised his segment would be featured either today or Friday.

“Generally, it was a conversation about where coal should stand in the energy plank of any candidate for president, and the importance coal still has in this area,” Pugh reflected. “Things of that nature. It was very well done and the producer was out of New York for CNN. It was a very good conversation.”

Once the interview was completed, the film crew spent time around Beckley, even visiting the Exhibition Coal Mine.

“Hopefully, it will be a nice little plug for our area and give us a little bit of exposure,” the mayor said.

Johns even touched on Pugh’s alma mater, the University of Alabama, spying some Crimson Tide trinkets on display, then confessed he knew little about the Southeastern Conference, a fact that became obvious immediately to the mayor.

“He wanted to know if Bear Bryant was still alive,” Pugh said. The legendary Alabama coach died Jan. 26, 1983.

Then, the reporter, raised in Columbus, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, quipped, “I can tell you the day that Bo Schembechler died.” The coach of Ohio State’s rival Michigan died Nov. 17, 2006.

In the interview, Pugh was asked about the ongoing controversy surrounding mountaintop mining and the role the coal industry as a whole will play in the new administration.

“I was asked what will it mean if a new president basically came out without coal as part of an energy plan, and I told him, No. 1, it will be disastrous to West Virginia,” the mayor said.

As an afterthought, Pugh said he regretted not asking his interviewer how CNN came to select Beckley.

“I don’t know if it just popped on a coalfield search or something like that,” the mayor said.

“But I’m glad they came here.”



Mannix Porterfield writes for The Register-Herald