Coal remains integral part of our overall economy

Speaking recently before the Peterson Institute of International Economics, a Washington think tank, oil giant BP PLC’s CEO Tony Hayward added that the U.S. should not try to save coal jobs at the expense of cleaner fuel industries, and that there is no reason to continue to build coal-burning power plants.

“We’ve got to find a better way to create jobs than preserving coal jobs,” Hayward told his audience. Not surprisingly, the United Mine Workers of America is calling for a boycott of BP’s gas stations in what the New York Times is calling an escalation in the “coal-gas feud.”

As my livelihood depends on coal, I won’t be buying gas from BP anytime soon. Coal is an integral component of our overall economy and is needed today, tomorrow and for years to come.

There are, obviously, people out there who do not realize this. You, The Tribune readers, may be using electricity produced from coal. And that is where coal connects with you.

I urge you to visit the Faces of Coal website, http://www.facesofcoal.org/index.php and consider becoming a member. Then, you decide where to buy your gas.

John F. Enyart

Ashland, Ky.