We wish President Barack Obama would make a trip to West Virginia — one of the 50 United States of America, in case he has forgotten — to see how important coal is to us — and to our great country.

President Obama has spent so much time in foreign countries, but he has yet to make a trip into West Virginia to hear residents’ concerns over the loss of surface mining permits and how devastating it will be on West Virginians and our national security.

Our Congressional leaders have said numerous times how our country is a little more secure due to the coal mined here in West Virginia and other states, Without it, we’d have to buy it from some foreign country and that would make us dependent on other countries for our nation’s energy.

What a scary thought!

Already, we are at the mercy of oil-producing countries because of our dependence on foreign oil.

Coal provides electricity for a very large percentage of the people in the U.S. and without coal mined here at home, we’d have to buy our coal from another country, and that would cause us to be even more dependent upon outside sources for our energy needs.

Does Obama want China or some other country to be the chief supplier of coal — and our energy — thus making us even more dependent upon an outside source for our needs? The U.S. used to supply every other country and now it seems like we’re becoming dependent upon others for our needs here at home.

Pres. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is holding up several surface mine permits as the agency re-evaluates permits that have already been approved once. Now, the EPA wants to take a closer look at those already-approved permits. While the EPA is taking its time in re-evaluating those permits, we have coal sitting in the ground in West Virginia that can’t be mined. Is the EPA going to shut down ALL the coal mines in West Virginia and force the U.S. to buy foreign coal? We sincerely hope not.

We desperately need these surface mine permits so we can mine coal here in West Virginia and our miners can get back to work. We need Pres. Obama to listen to the people here in West Virginia and our Congressional leaders who are saying that coal is not only important to us, but also to the entire country. Hopefully, our senators and delegates can get Obama’s attention and let him know how devastating the loss of coal will be TO EVERYONE.

Instead of spending so much time in countries like Copenhagen, Pres. Obama needs to come to West Virginia and deal with the problems here in our own country. And he needs to start by telling the EPA to reissue the already-approved coal mining permits.