Speaking at a Morehead-Rowan County Chamber of Commerce lunch, Booth said energy prices were on the rise and cited environmental “attacks” on coal as the main factor.

The former Morehead State University Board of Regents chair said that coal once powered half the electricity generation in the US but that had dropped to 40% in recent years.

This had a dramatic effect on employment within Booth Energy. There have been 400 jobs cut within the company across Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

“I hate to lay people off,” Booth said. “We work very diligently in keeping people working, but this war on coal is affecting more than miners.”

Booth stated that electricity costs for his mining operations had increased by $400,000 a year.

“You are going to start seeing this on your home bill,” he continued. “It's something we need to be very cognitive of”

Booth said that the market for coal was primarily domestic, but had become more global.

“We have the ability to get coal to the export market. China and India are leading the world with new electricity production right now. The rest of the world is turning to coal usage.”

Booth argued that the US needs to build more coal-fired plants to boost efficiency.

“Out of 2000 plants planned to be built in the next decade, only 60 are planned for the United States,” he said.

“We have to get on board with this process. We have better technology than other countries and we must utilise it.”

Booth concluded his speech by saying: “We firmly believe that coal is the lowest-cost energy source in the US.

“We must continue to provide low-cost energy to be competitive on the global scale”.