[Old School]

We live in the most beautiful part of the country IMO and Tourism should be our #1 industry.
This hand wringing over loosing the coal industry is BS anyway. The coal industry needs to be cleaned up but it doesn't need to be abolished.

Coal mining is the most regulated industry in the nation we have State inspectors (Safety, Electrical, Ventilation, DEP), Federal inspectors (Safety, Electrical, Ventilation), OSM does oversite investigations, ATF inspectors monitor our use of explosives, EPA inspections.

Coal Mining Permits have changed drastically over the years, here's a example in 1980 when I started a 500 acre mining permit appalication would constist of approx. 50 pages with about 5 or 6 maps, it would take about 3 months to have this permit appalication approved by the state and would cost about $4,000 dollars. Today this same 500 acre permit appalication will consist of over 2,000 pages with about 50 to 75 maps and will take 24 to 30 months to have this permit approved and will cost between $400,000 and $500,000 dollars. This cost does not include all of the other studies required by the state.