[Hoot Gibson]

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.

Unfortunately, that is not how the federal bureaucracy works. Once the liberal civil servants infest an agency, it is very difficult to shift the regulatory momentum. It takes very strong leadership in the White House to undo the actions of a previous administration and public sector unions have made the task even more difficult than it was following the Carter and Clinton messes.

Even under Republican presidents, liberal cabinet members have managed to inflict heavy damage to the coal industry. George H. W. Bush appointed Lynn Woodward to be Sec. of Labor, and she persecuted coal mine operators worse than any of the pre-Obama generation of liberal regulators, IMO. Under her "leadership" many small operators were coerced into pleading guilty to offenses in exchange for suspended sentences to avoid going bankrupt from the cost of legal costs. I spoke to operators who were told that if they did not agree to a plea deal, then charges would be brought against their mothers, fathers, and other relatives who were company officers.

I am not saying that the operators were not guilty, but the government's cases were flimsy and the operators' family members only involvement with the businesses were often limited to being listed as officers on the corporate charters. Lynn Woodward was a vicious self-centered politician whose life ambition was to be the first female president and she tried to use small mine operators as a stepping stone for her career.

Obama's damage to the coal industry will be long lasting. It would take an extreme national energy emergency to quickly undo that damage. Most of Obama's bureaucrats will retire as government regulators.