. >> my name is art kirkendaal, i am a representative of the deep south of west virginia. prior to being nominated to senate, appointed to senate and i'm the democrat nominee this year, successful, i was on the county commission local for 30 years. and so disturbing regarding the laurel permit back in 1998, we had a real tussle over there about the opportunity to mine coal, and as a commissioner, you set the budget for all the public works depends on you. the school kids depend on you the ability to have life in a rural county. so when this permit was dispanted. we lost 400 quality jobs, $29 million back in 1998 in direct payroll, if you do the other jobs that support the coal industry, probably $100 million in that particular area. our coal severance at that time was about $400,000 a quarter. i had to start cutting the budget to tighten things up because we got up to $72,000 one quarter. when 20% of your budget is derived from coal tax in the energy producing county, it's pretty, pretty tough. so during the years now, we're in almost the 14th year, we're still not mining