Roundup: Alpha Natural Resources to idle coal mines; Alcoa targets growing demand for aluminium wheels; more
Alpha Natural Resources to idle coal mines
Alpha Natural Resources said Friday it plans to idle some West Virginia coal mines and notified 91 workers they would be laid off, as the company responds to low coal prices and federal regulations to reduce carbon pollution at coal-fired power plants.
Highland Mining, a subsidiary of Alpha, based in Bristol, Va., will idle its Superior, North and Trace Fork surface mines, and plans to lay off workers at its Reylas and Freeze Fork surface mines. The affected mines are in Logan and Mingo counties in West Virginia. About 25 percent of the affected workers will continue to work at the mines as operations wind down, which should be completed by mid-April.
The mines that are being idled produced 1.5 million tons of thermal coal in 2014, according to the company. Alpha laid off 193 workers at eight mines in West Virginia last year, after originally warning 1,100 employees they could lose their jobs.
Alcoa targets in-demand aluminum wheels
Alcoa Inc. expanded a factory in Hungary that makes aluminum truck wheels to meet growing demand for lighter automotive components in Europe.
The $13 million expansion of the plant in Szekesfehervar will add 35 jobs and double production capacity, Alcoa said. The company, which is trying to grow its business with the auto industry, expects sales of aluminum wheels to account for 50 percent of the global wheel market by 2018, up from 30 percent in 2010.
In addition to producing wheels and other auto components, Alcoa is supplying sheet aluminum for the body of the Ford F-150 and is developing an aluminum battery that could extend the range of hybrid and electric vehicles by 1,000 miles.
American, US Airways pilots approve joint contract
Pilots at American Airlines and US Airways have approved a single labor contract, a step toward combining workforces at the two carriers, which merged in December 2013. The multiyear deal gives pilots a 23 percent pay raise retroactive to Dec. 2.
The Allied Pilots Association said Friday that the contract was approved 66 percent to 34 percent, with 95 percent of eligible pilots casting a vote.
The outcome could help American avoid some of the labor-integration issues that have dogged other airlines after mergers. United Airlines has a joint contract with pilots but not with mechanics or flight attendants. The pilots at US Airways did not approve a joint contract after the 2005 merger with America West Airlines, forcing the combined carrier to operate with separate crews. Pilots at American and US Airways will get the retroactive pay raises plus annual raises of 3 percent through 2019. The contract does not include profit-sharing, which pilots get at United, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.
Government sells scandalized Teapot Dome oilfield for $45M
A private company finally will be able to drill legally for oil at Teapot Dome, a remote Wyoming oilfield that is best known for a political scandal that embroiled the administration of President Warren G. Harding in the early 1920s.
The Energy Department announced Friday that it had finalized the sale of the 9,481-acre Teapot Dome oilfield to New York-based Stranded Oil Resources Corp. for $45.2 million. Stranded Oil was the highest of nine bidders in the fall.
Most of the easily accessible oil in the oilfield 35 miles north of Casper has been tapped out since drilling resumed in the mid-1970s. Stranded Oil specializes in enhanced oil recovery, or recharging depleted oil fields with techniques such as injecting carbon dioxide underground.
The site was once one of three federal government oil reserves that were to be left untouched except with the exception of use as emergency fuel supplies for the U.S. Navy.
Chevron quits Polish shale exploration after disappointing wells
Chevron Corp. is abandoning natural gas exploration in Poland's shale formations, joining at least four other international energy producers who quit the nation because of disappointing results.
Chevron, which began drilling Polish shale wells in 2012, dropped plans for additional exploration upon finding the gas-bearing rocks were unsuitable for commercial extraction, Kurt Glaubitz, a spokesman for the San Ramon, Calif.-based company, said Friday.
Exxon Mobil Corp. abandoned Polish shale in 2012 after drilling unsuccessful wells. Talisman Energy Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. quit in May 2013, and Eni SpA left in early 2014.
Taj Mahal benefit cuts ‘essential sacrifice'
The billionaire investor who is acquiring the Trump Taj Mahal says benefit cuts imposed by a bankruptcy court judge are “an essential sacrifice that must be made” to keep the casino open.
Carl Icahn made the comments Friday as the National Labor Relations Board sided with the casino workers' union in a court battle over health care and pension benefits for Taj Mahal workers. Icahn responded to employees who demonstrated a day earlier outside his New York offices, saying their union was delaying a new contract by insisting on a health insurance plan he called “a lucrative racket” for union bosses.
The labor board filed a brief in support of Local 54 of Unite-HERE, which is trying to overturn an October bankruptcy court ruling that canceled health insurance and pension coverage.
