Editor:

In an otherwise informative article on President-elect Barack Obama's views of the U.S. coal industry (Nov. 9 Casper Star-Tribune article, "Coal industry: bring on greenhouse regs, slowly," by Dustin Bleizeffer), the impression may have been created that in the presidential campaign's closing days the coal industry had chastised the senator for remarks he made last winter.

Our only intention in responding to these comments was to remind both candidates, not just the president-elect, that coal is indispensable to the U.S. economy because it generates half of our electricity.

Therefore, any controls on greenhouse gas emissions that might "bankrupt" the coal industry would also bankrupt the economy by forcing power plants to use more costly fuels.

We're confident the 44th president will recall his more recent support for clean coal technologies and for greater federal funding that is needed to deploy and demonstrate them.

HAL QUINN, Washington, D.C.

President and CEO, the National

Mining Association