It will be interesting to see what Obama does in contrast to Hillary in West Virginia.The people in both states need jobs, but the coal industry is not the solution.

Coal is a horrible pollutant, even worse than gas and oil.  The so called technologies for "clean coal" are by estimates from MIT, at least 20 years away.  In an excellent post by David Roberts on May !!, 2008, he pointed out that  West Virginia and Kentucky are the second and third highest coal producing states and  that they have the highest and second highest number of people employed by the coal industry.  They represent 46% of the coal mine employment in the country.

David suggests that Obama could learn from the gas tax episode and treat the people in West Virginia and Kentucky like the adults they are and tell them the truth. 

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/9/14546/59925

http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080319/hillary-clinton-flunks-coal-west-virginia-public-radio

the number of jobs provided by coal is falling, as it has been for some time.  This is another example of big business taking over and taking jobs away from workers.  Among some of the new minining techniques, these large companies are slicing off tops of mountains.