WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall says the coal industry is preaching to the choir with the ads touting coal that run in West Virginia.

Rahall says the coal industry needs to run ads in Washington, D.C., so that lawmakers can see just how important coal is to West Virginia and the United States.

"When I was speaking at the county commission meeting in Charleston, I was asked, 'How can we improve coal's image outside of West Virginia' -- in our nation's capitol and around the country where coal is not in the brightest of lights," Rahall said in a phone interview from his office in Washington. "I thought of the massive TV campaign that is currently underway in southern West Virginia being done by Massey (Energy). I love those. They are great ads and beautifully done -- first class. But, why are those being run in West Virginia? That's like preaching to the choir. Why is this beautiful ad campaign by Massey and other coal companies not being run in our nation's capitol where the regulators and those who affect coal live, breathe and work. Why isn't that campaign run here?"

Rahall said he thinks the money spent on the West Virginia ad campaign could be more affective if the commercials were run in Washington, D.C.

"Why not use the money more effectively where it might change some minds that count," Rahall asked.

Rahall said he had already suggested to other coal companies that they should use their advertising dollars on a campaign that legislators on Capitol Hill could see.

"Massey seems to be the only one spending the bucks right now to get the message out," Rahall said. "And it's good that they're doing that. But, there's not a one of those ads being run here in Washington, D.C. There are some generic ads being run about clean coal technology. But, that's another issue and it's not driving the point home like these very effective Massey ads do."

Rahall said he believes coal has such a bad image because environmentalists get their message out across the country.

"The word is not out there about coal and most people don't live in coal producing areas and they have an idea that it's dirty, although it can be cleaned up," Rahall said. "The environmentalists show pictures of these chopped-off mountains over the national media, who loves that stuff, and the national media comes in and does a one-day or two-day visit to our areas and then go back to their ivory towers in New York or Washington or wherever and write negative stories on us without getting to know the positive aspects like airports built on reclaimed sites or industrial parks and roads. Roads are so hard to build in southern West Virginia and they can be built on top of effectively-reclaimed surface mine sites. They won't recognize all that. This is an area where flat-land is a premium."

Rahall said he hopes coal companies will start running ads like environmentalists do — across the country and not just in a coal-producing state.

"These great ads need to go nationwide," Rahall said.

According to Rahall, the fight for coal is "a struggle."

"We're going to meet with (Environmental Protection Agency Director) Lisa Jackson and all the regulators and this time we're bringing in both Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Sen. Robert Byrd," Rahall said. "We're pushing them and we'll keep on pushing them to get some permits issued and make some decisions instead of keeping everyone in limbo like they are doing."

Gov. Manchin met with Pres. Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and other officials on coal and the nation's energy security last week and said he was optimistic of the outcome of the discussion.