Keeping with the Times

By Scott Hutter, ACC President and Martin Engineering President & CEO

The world is moving at near breakneck speed and the ACC is working to keep pace with these rapid changes. Our industry is facing demographic, policy, and technological changes that will fundamentally alter the way we do business over the next few decades.

A few years back, in the Spring 2007 issue of American Coal, we looked at the future of our industry. Several of the articles in that issue addressed plans to deal with demographic shifts in the coal industry. No sector was exempt – mining, utilities, railroads, barging, ports and terminals, allied services and suppliers reported that as much as half of the people in our industry are set to retire in the next decade.

The “Great Recession” of the past few years has sufficiently impacted 401-K’s and investments that many industry employees may choose to stick it out for a few more years. However, we’re still dealing with the same reality: in the next decade, we’re facing a fundamental demographic shift throughout this industry.

At the same time, the increasingly strict regulatory environment is an ongoing threat. Regulatory policy is increasingly anti-coal and is impacting the viability of many of our older and smaller generation assets. We’re updating, upgrading, or mothballing existing units at a pace that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. On the mining side, delays and rejections of much needed permits are impacting the viability of existing mines and making greenfield mines seem like a thing of the past.

We’re also addressing technology and communications developments that will change the way we connect with our members, clients, customers, elected officials, and the public. We live in a world where a two-day media campaign by anti-coal groups can force a respected publishing house to wholly abandon a multi-year partnership that produced balanced energy education materials for this nation’s school children.

The speed with which information (whether accurate or inaccurate) can be moved out to a data-hungry population is breathtaking. So our industry must be ready to publish fact-based replies and updates. We need to ensure everyone has access to both sides of coal-related stories. Plus, we need to be able to move that information out to the public via the latest information outlets, including social media like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

In the face of these challenges, the ACC has developed a program with the potential to address each of these needs – demographic, policy, and communications. In 2009, we launched the Tomorrow’s Leadership Council (TLC) program, designed to advance and vest executive talent in the coal industry. The TLC provides a meaningful opportunity for up-and-coming executives to enhance their industry knowledge and networks through projects and activities that advance industry-wide objectives as well as professional development goals.

This year, the TLC group was tasked with producing a social media primer that provides instruction on how the industry can take part in the world of social media, while ensuring it is used as an effective business tool as opposed to a distraction.