Members of his staff fanned out in undisclosed parts of the state last week on a three-day fact-finding mission, in advance of an orchestrated rally against mountaintop mining Tuesday at a Massey installation.
"We have not released where we went," Byrd's communications director, Jesse Jacobs, said Wednesday. "It was a low-key, fact-finding mission."
Jacobs said the staff hasn't had an opportunity yet to brief Byrd on what it learned from a variety of sources involved with the issue.
The senator is recuperating at a Washington, D.C., hospital from a staph infection and is expected to be away from his Senate office the rest of the week.
On its tour, Byrd's staff met with industry leaders and members of environmental groups, and also used the occasion to get briefed on recovery efforts in the wake of horrendous flooding in southern West Virginia.
The Obama administration is under fire from coal and business interests in West Virginia for holding up 48 coal mining permits and for pushing the controversial cap-and-trade legislation that would impose more stringent air pollution rules.
-- E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
To see more of The Register-Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.register-herald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:
Market Updates |
Stock Alerts |
All Trading News |
Stock Index