[TheRealThing]

It makes no difference to Obama and his allies like the Lexington Herald-Leader editorial staff whether companies operate safely or not. They have been going after good companies for years. I have seen how the H-L twists facts first hand, having been present during an interview and then read the resulting article.

Although Wyoming produces far more coal than Kentucky or West Virginia, it does so with far fewer coal miners. The reason that most, if not all of the coal is stripped and the stripping ratios (overburden to coal) are much lower than in the Central Appalachian field. The coal is inferior in most respects as most of it it sub-bituminous, with a high moisture, and low BTU content (although it is generally very low sulfur coal). Montana and Alaska both have abundant coal reserves but mining conditions are much less favorable and transportation more problematic than it is in the PRB of Wyoming.

Mining conditions are so much more favorable in Wyoming surface mines than in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia that the 120+ ton trucks that are used to move rock in EKY and WV are used for hauling coal in the western mines. The large electric shovels that are used in the east to load overburden onto trucks are used to load coal in the west and large draglines are used to remove overburden.

West Virginia alone employs more coal miners than all of the coal mines located west of the Mississippi River combined. The main reason is the favorable mining conditions in the west and the fact that Central Appalachian coal remains the best quality coal in the world by a wide margin.

Coal mining jobs are far less plentiful outside of Central Appalachia than you have been led to believe.

Everybody knows the left is the source of all the anti-coal regulation, legislation and supporting media propaganda. I mean, how vivid an imagination does one really need to think that mine inspectors sent into the mines since 2008 would be looking to make coal mines look bad? In my mind, there are two possibilities, either they're (the left) convinced global warming is real or their contempt for the American way of life is so profound, that they are willing to do all they can to rob this country of such a vital source of energy. I will never buy into the argument that industry can make do without coal. Especially when the replacement for coal, (natural gas), already has forces mounting from that same left mounting against fracking and poised to move against natural gas when the time is right.

We might be worried about foreign policy and domestic distress but you can bet that while the public is focused on such matters, liberals seeded within the EPA and other regulatory agencies, are busily cranking out regs intended to minimize the use of fossil fuels. Further, they know there is likely only two years remaining in which to submerge us in a regulatory flood of vast enough proportion, so as to make it nearly impossible to work our way out of in the short term. Hence the recently forthcoming ozone regulations.