President Barack Obama's deeply flawed energy policies are hitting home, literally. At a time when the United States ought to be using more coal, lagging demand for it has been blamed for layoffs at a local mine.
Ohio Valley Coal Co. officials announced Friday they are laying off 29 workers at the Powhatan No. 6 Mine. Ronald Koontz, general manager of the mine, said Obama's policies "are the direct causes of this layoff."
The same day, United Mine Workers union spokesman Phil Smith noted a mild winter, low natural gas prices and an "increasingly challenging regulatory atmosphere for coal are combining to make this a difficult year for coal miners."
Ohio Valley Coal is not the first major mining company to announce layoffs.
Hundreds of miners in West Virginia and Kentucky also are being idled, their companies revealed recently.
Those who insist there is no war on coal by Obama ignore the evidence, including layoffs. Unfortunately, the affected miners and their families, some of them local, cannot close their eyes to the situation.
