President Obama told Republican Representatives last week that he’s a supporter of clean coal. At a meeting of the Republican members of the House of Representatives in Baltimore, West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito asked Obama if he would adjust his policies to keep people working in the coal industry. He answered that he supports higher production, but in the context of planning for a future in which coal would be, first of all, “clean,” and more than that, would be part of a mix of energy sources. Obama said this would necessarily mean a transition, and said, “We can’t operate the coal industry in the United States as if we’re still in the 1920’s or the 1930’s or the 1950’s. We’ve got to be thinking, what does that industry look like in the next hundred years.”

A day after meeting with environmentalists, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin introduced a resolution in the state legislature declaring that coal is still king in West Virginia. The symbolic resolution condemns the climate bill now before Congress and urges West Virginia’s Senators and Representatives to oppose it, and states that coal is and will continue to be a dominant source of electric power. Opponents of mountaintop removal mining, who had met with Manchin the day before, commented that he apparently hadn’t heard, or hadn’t believed, a word they said.

If America shifts from coal to natural gas, coal companies should start producing gas. That’s the recommendation from several experts, according to the Reuters news service. A lot of newly discovered natural gas lies in the Marcellus shale formation, which lies in or near coal deposits in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Coalbed methane is another source. Coal is under pressure from many sides, including those concerned with climate change and those opposed to mountaintop removal mining. Getting into gas production would enable coal companies to diversify and meet these challenges. It’s not that easy, of course. Gas production is capital-intensive compared to mining, especially surface mining, and it takes a different set of skills. But Consol Energy, for one, has already taken the plunge. Consol’s CNX gas unit produced an estimated 92 billion cubic feet of gas in 2009—the second largest production total in the Appalachians, and growing.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced last week it is suing two east Kentucky coal operators for over $600,000 in unpaid safety fines. The fines were levied against Double A Mining and B King Coal for safety violations at operations in Knott County. An MSHA press release said the fines became due when the companies did not contest any of the violations, which dated to 2004-2006. The mines in question have since been abandoned.

According to the investment website “Motley Fool,” the world coal market is going through a long-term structural change. Demand from Asia will drive the world market, the website says. The big winner is Peabody, which has aggressively positioned itself in Australia as well as in US operations that can easily reach the Pacific Ocean. A short-term loser is Arch, which has been relying on a domestic American market that remains weak. Arch should be OK, they say, as it is well positioned in Wyoming and Montana. The analysis didn’t mention Appalachian coal. Because the mountains are so far from the Pacific, though, it would seem that the strongest export market for our coal would be metallurgical coal, which is about 20 percent of production.