[Hoot Gibson]

Like I said, I'm not against coal, I'm indifferent. If they mine it clean, and burn it clean, and keep workers safe, I'm all for it. But, I'll never feel sorry for whiny ass miners, that refuse to go where they are hiring miners. I travel to take care of my family. I do it, they are no better than me. The midwest is begging for miners. They always have the option of packing a suitcase like I do. But, most lay around here, afraid to travel to where the work is, and bitch and whine about being out of work. I spent years traveling to MI every week(home on Friday, back on Sunday, 7 hours each way), so my wife could keep her career here, and even traveled as far as New Mexico to work. Don't ask me to feel sorry for these guys, while the midwest is begging for workers.

Coal mining jobs are not like construction jobs. I would be surprised that there are many companies in the midwest begging for miner because, as I said before, there are not many mines in the midwest. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio have some mines, but they are not major producing states. If I were a young person in the mining industry and wanted to stay in the industry, then I would be looking for work in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming or the underground mines of Utah or Colorado.

If a conservative Republican is elected president in 2016, then some jobs will return to the eastern coalfields, but the damage that Obama's administration has done to the industry is severe and will be long lasting. Career bureaucrats have the real power in DC, and Obama has stuffed the EPA, MSHA, and other federal agencies full of radical socialists like himself. Once in place, it is almost impossible to rid the government of such parasitic organisms.