Well, the theory was sound and good idea for both parties. They didn't foresee Obama cracking the whip really hard on coal.
If that didn't happen, who knows where PCX would be now, could be the complete opposite.
If a Republican gets in office next year, the future for coal will be much better. I won't think they would just release all of it and undo everything that Obama did, but I would think they would ease a lot more restrictions and all that against "coal" in general. They won't be out to make the hippies happy and not concern about pollution as a liberal democrat.
will be interesting to see after the election on how all the coal companies react. If obama is re-elected, could keep going south. If its a republican, we could see it make a huge rebound just on that alone.