[Hoot Gibson]

At what, presenting the truth about some of the mines laying off because of cheap coal prices? As I said at the first of the thread, I spoke with a high up Cam person. He told me their layoffs coming up are because they can't mine the coal cheap enough to sell it right now. They have plenty of permits for the next 5 years. The Miller Bros. layoffs are coming because of their parent company coming out of bankruptcy. How can they humiliate me with that? They are the ones bringing in off topic stuff that doesn't bear any weight to the topic of the thread. I'm no coal expert and don't try to act like I am. I just know what I see with my very own eyes.

As I said before, low coal prices are only a part of the equation that yields job losses. Mining costs are equally important and our federal government is actively working to increase those costs in a bad economy.

When coal prices bounce back, as they inevitably will, those higher costs caused by Obama's meddling will not drop back to current levels. Temporary job losses in the coal industry have been common in the past. The coal industry has a long history of booms and busts. Obama's attack on the industry is what makes the current layoffs different and it is what threatens to make the job losses permanent.