[Hoot Gibson]

How long will it take romney to allow eastern kentucky to get up and running again?

I think that will depend on natural gas prices but if the damage that Obama has done is not reversed, the coal industry will never fully recover. Eastern Kentucky coal companies are already handicapped by the fact that much of its remaining coal reserves are in very thin seams compared to those in other parts of the country. If the playing field is leveled and eastern Kentucky coal cannot compete, then so be it, but it is time to roll back the regulatory environment to at least 2008.

The thing about natural gas is that given the current surplus we have, new applications will be found and prices will eventually rise to where coal will be more competitive. All of the buses in the NOVA suburbs of DC already run on natural gas and there is no reason that other large fleets of buses cannot be converted to burn natural gas.