Senior Vice President of Mining Services for International Coal Group Gene Kitts, led the charge in defending coal during a Coal Forum, hosted at Mountain State University, in Beckley.

The forum was held on Jan. 27, on the college campus and was attended by students, faculty, community and coal industry workers and executives alike.

Kitts’ presentation was titled “Appalachian Coal Mining Under Attack,” wherein he discussed the history of coal and coal mining in Appalachia, and where the coal industry stands today.

According to Kitts, after nearly 200 years of mining coal, the industry’s safety record has never been as good as it is today.

“This is the safest year since recordkeeping began,” Kitts stated.

According to Mine Safety Health Administration, in 2009, there were three coal-mining fatalities in West Virginia and 18 reported nationwide.

Kitts picked up where Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship left off during a recent debate with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at the campus of the University of Charleston.

Where Blankenship made several references during the debate of “unreasonable” standards on the industry by the Environmental Protection Agency, Kitts continued to express industry frustration at the EPA.

Kitts said he was “offended” with the EPA, saying that if the EPA cannot show them how, precisely, they’re destroying water resources, then the agency does not have a “credible argument.”

He went on to say coal miners have to be the best in the world since those in the industry come from all over the world to train and learn how coal is mined in academies and training facilities in West Virginia.

On the topic of surface mining and mountaintop removal mining, Kitts shared estimates on the number of jobs that would be lost if the practice of surface mining were to be abolished in West Virginia and surrounding Appalachian states.

“The Appalachian states (West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee) that produce 82.5 million tons of coal a year would lose 14,000 direct jobs and about 63,000 altogether,” Kitts said.

Yet, the coal industry does not deny that there has been a large decrease in jobs this past decade. Whereas the coal industry used to employ more than 50,000 miners, it now employs approximately 15,000 miners.

According to Kitts, the number of years left of surface mining – between 20 to 30 years –could be witnessed by students assembled during the Coal Forum at MSU.

“Going forward, coal will be mined out,” he stated. “I’m saying, in Appalachia, if we can continue to be the energy supplier in this country, then we need renewable, but we also need coal.”