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This is an excellent and timely subject. I would think after last weekend, that coal miners might be in 'vogue', so this might well get some play - particularly on local talk shows in PA, WVa, etc.

Thanks for all the effort you put into this research and organization. Well done!

Midwest Coal fields are mostly shut down. Due to the Clean Air Act, it is cheaper for utilities to buy Wyoming Coal and ship it here by rail than to put scubbers on their plants and buy higher sulfur Indiana Coal.

Originally scrubbers were going to be required at some point, but the utilities somehow managed to get that portion dropped, so here we sit on tons of coal while we ship it in from the West. The same thing happened to the eastern coal...There aren't nearly as many mines working in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other Appalachian states as there used to be.

The Clean Coal technology that is in the Energy Bill would help the mining industry, as well as giving us a source of energy that is relatively low in cost. Of course, Tom Daschle has that bill bottled up.

Appreciate the kind words... and my personal feelings about the Utah Coal Ripoff aside, I hope this mine ordeal that just played out will remind all Americans just how important regular working people are. My Mom's folks are from Ohio, and long ago we had some miners in her side of the family- it's hard, dirty, dangerous work-- but it's work that somebody has to do.

I would dearly love to collar some of these overpaid News Jackals you see on TV and get an honest day of manual labor out of them in the hot summer sun...