It might have been a protest against a federal agency considering tougher reviews of surface coal mining permits, but any bystanders stumbling upon a mining rally at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public hearing Oct. 13 in Charleston would be forgiven for thinking it was a demonstration against U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.

Hundreds of mining employees and their families showed up at the rally at the Charleston Civic Center, many wearing mining uniforms with reflective stripes. One of the most common signs protesters waved chastised "Nick Joe" Rahall for being "anti-coal."

"We're not pleased with him at all," protester Stephanie Davis of Logan said.

Rahall's sin? A few days before, he told the Register-Herald in Beckley that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was simply doing its job when it delayed several surface mine permits for further review, and that coal companies knew the review was coming.

That was a markedly different tone than the one taken by Gov. Joe Manchin, who all but declared war on the EPA by claiming it was out to end surface mining. Manchin's message was the one the miners wanted to hear, and Rahall appeared to back down from his earlier statements when he told a local radio personality "I get it!" when asked about the miners' belief the coal industry is under siege.

The incident showed that when it comes to state politics, coal remains king. And that loyalty to coal is putting the state's Democrats in a difficult position as their party leadership pursues increased regulation of the industry. After all, if there is one thing that defines West Virginia, then it's the quirk of geology that left it with vast coal formations.

"Coal is a symbol in this state," West Virginia Wesleyan College professor Robert Rupp said.

That symbol can be seen everywhere in state government, from the image of a miner holding a pickaxe on the state seal to the statue of a miner standing on the Capitol grounds. The irony, Rupp noted, is coal mining is an industry on the decline in West Virginia, at least in the number of people it employs.

Still, coal mining provides jobs in those areas that otherwise would have little economic development, particularly in southern West Virginia. Severance taxes from coal mining also helped the state avoid the deep budget deficits that have wracked other states during the national recession.

Rupp said the state has seen its leaders come out in support of the industry in the past. What's different this time is the intensity.

"What surprises me is the depth of criticism and the fact it cuts all the way across the political spectrum," he said.

Democrats Divided

Rahall probably was right about at least one thing: The coal industry should have known more stringent regulation was coming.

President Barack Obama was elected running on a pro-environment platform. While he was a senator from coal-producing Illinois, he pledged during his campaign to seek greater regulation of the industry, particularly with regard to greenhouse gas emissions.

Shortly into his administration, Obama and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation setting up a mandatory cap-and-trade program for coal-fired power plants. He appointed Lisa Jackson, former New Jersey Department of Environmental Quality administrator, as head of the EPA. She made no secret that she sought to enforce federal regulations that environmentalists said the former administration attempted to gut.

Obama's election was part of a larger shift to the political left for Democrats in recent years, also signified by the election of Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California as speaker of the House and the previous election of one-time presidential candidate Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

West Virginia Democrats traditionally have been more conservative than their national counterparts, with the exception of their vocal support for organized labor. They also have opposed greater environmental regulation of the coal industry.

As a result, it came as no surprise when the state's two Democrats in the House, Rahall and Rep. Alan Mollohan, voted with a majority of Republicans in opposing the cap-and-trade bill. They weren't alone, with Democrats in other coal-producing states opposing the bill, which squeaked by.

Democrats are well known for internal squabbling, at least as opposed to Republicans, who usually show a more unified front. But Hannah Geffert, assistant research professor of political science at Shepherd University, said the divide about cap-and-trade policies was more about where members of Congress were from than political ideology.

"I think as opposed to a party-line issue, it is more a state-by-state and a regional issue based on where there is heavy coal production," she said.

Debates Continue

Debates abound about what effects cap-and-trade policies and a tougher permitting process will mean for the industry, but both could put miners and other coal industry employees out of work. That's something that weighs heavily on politicians' minds.

"Our delegation is not going to vote for anything that causes job losses in the state," Geffert said.

In addition, energy interests remain a large contributor to political campaigns in West Virginia.

Mining, electric utilities and mining unions contributed more than $421,000 to campaigns for state offices in 2008, according to data gathered by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

At the same time, the industry contributed at least $380,000 to successful congressional candidates during the same time period, not counting contributions from organized labor or lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Just how the cap-and-trade debate will play out in the Senate remains to be seen. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va,, has been the most vocal in opposing any legislation he said would put people out of work, but he also has left open the possibility of voting for a cap-and-trade bill.

Political insiders view Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., as a swing vote. He has not said how say he would vote on any cap-and-trade bill, but he was one of Obama's earliest and most vocal supporters in the Senate during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Both senators have been given breathing room to consider their votes. Few insiders believe a vote on cap-and-trade legislation will come up before the beginning of the year because both chambers currently are focused on health care reform legislation.

Political Reality

One sobering fact facing the state's political leaders is that when it comes to regulating the coal industry, West Virginia can't call on Obama to return any favors.

The state voted against Obama during last year's primary elections, giving his opponent, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a last-minute boost that kept her campaign going longer than it probably would have lasted otherwise. Then during the general elections, West Virginia was one of only a handful of states that voted for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

And West Virginia isn't much of a prize with its meager five electoral votes. Both Obama and McCain largely ignored the state during the general election, focusing instead on heavily populated neighbors Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Another fact working against state leaders is that Obama must think in broader terms than just West Virginia. Polls consistently have shown that a majority of the U.S. public believes global warming is a problem, although one they place low on their lists of concerns. The administration also is under intense diplomatic pressure from Europe to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

When it comes to mountaintop mining, the most frequent images to come out of West Virginia in the national media are of stripped and denuded mountains. Scientific American's On Earth magazine featured a map of West Virginia mountaintop mining sites, and national publications ranging from National Geographic to the New York Times frequently run feature stories about the practice.

Virtually no nationwide polls about views on mountaintop mining exist, but one commissioned by two environmental organizations last year concluded the public opposes the practice by a two-to-one margin. Even West Virginians can't seem to make up their minds. A recent poll found a majority of state residents in favor of mountaintop mining, but a 1998 poll concluded that most residents opposed it at the time.

That's why Rupp said from a political standpoint, Obama probably has more to gain politically by getting tough on the coal industry than giving it a pass.

Whatever Obama's reasons for his position, many coal industry supporters view the president's actions as a war on coal.

"One of the ways we can explain that very intense reaction is many prominent people see this as part of an agenda to undermine coal mining, not just surface mining," Rupp said.

That puts state leaders like Manchin in an awkward position. Like other Democrats, the governor supported Obama and still speaks favorably of him.

However, Manchin acknowledged in an interview that the president turned down an invitation to tour the carbon sequestration facilities at the Mountaineer Power Plant in New Haven. He also laid the blame for recent actions by the EPA at the feet of agency administrators rather than Obama, saying the president needed to rein in his agency heads.

"If I'm looking for a balance and they are way out of order, I would pull them back," he said.

Also, Manchin said when it came to mountaintop mining, "the total facts haven't reached (Obama's) desk."

The debate could turn into political opportunity for state Republicans, who have been trying to drive home the political link between state Democrats and Obama.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the state's sole Republican in Congress, hasn't shied away from characterizing the president's coal policies as job killers. Capito is rumored to be considering a run either for governor or for Byrd's Senate seat once it's vacant.

Still, her criticism has largely mirrored those of most other Republicans.

"Just show us the rules and be consistent with them," she said on WOWK-TV's public affairs program "Decision Makers" when asked about the EPA's actions on coal mining. "I think that is where we are having problems."