[Hoot Gibson]

Extremely warm last Winter, record low gas prices, coal selling prices cheap, coal mining prices high, and western coal selling at 6-8 dollars a ton. My buddy that knows some of the top people at Alpha said they told him that Alpha was sitting on huge amounts of coal, millions and millions of tons, refusing to mine it. It memory serves, it was 150 million tons.

The amount of coal reserves that a company controls has nothing to do with whether they can mine it profitably. If the coal is leased, then in tough economic times, modern leases generally force companies to mine a minimal amount of coal or forfeit prepaid royalties to avoid defaulting on their leases. Coal company owners do not decide to operate mines or shut them down to impact elections. However, a powerful politician declaring war on the mining industry can influence how patient they will be in riding out a poor economy and even worse regulatory environment.