Attention fans of coal, singing or otherwise: here's an important announcement by the city of Los Angeles:

...commissioners at the Department of Water and Power moved forward with plans to dump the utility's interest in a coal-burning plant in Arizona and convert another one in Utah to natural gas. The plants provide nearly 40% of the city's energy.

The changes, coupled with new commitments to renewable power, would make the city coal-free by 2025, utility officials said.

While clearly a victory for the environment, L.A's decision seriously undermines the message of the Clean Coal Carolers, those jolly carbon crooners from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity who were so gleefully dismantled on this show four years ago. Obviously, if the C.C.C. chooses to respond musically to these developments, you'll see it here first.

After President Obama's re-election, one Ohio coal executive laid off 150 workers and blamed the administration's "war on coal."

Times are little better in Virginia. Governor Bob McDonnell has criticized Obama's energy policies as bad for Virginia's coal industry. Today, McDonnell's office sent out a press released titled: "Governor McDonnell Applauds Massive Call Backs and Hiring of Miners by Southern Coal Corporation: Effort will save 500 miners jobs; and another 650 new miners will be hired."

You can read the news coverage here. Or you can get it from the McDonnell press release, in full, after the jump.

Governor McDonnell made the following statement, following the announcement by Southern Coal Corporation of massive call backs and hiring of miners in Southwest Virginia, Southern West Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. The company has worked over the last month with several customers to secure coal orders to be able to save jobs as well as reopen mines closed earlier this year. Southern Coal has entered into a multi-year agreement with one of the nation's largest utility providers, American Electric Power. Jim and Jay Justice, owners of Southern Coal, have been in constant negotiation with officials of American Electric Power to be able to save jobs and restart the mines.

"I want to thank the Southern Coal Corporation, American Electric Power, and Jim and Jay Justice for their proactive work to save jobs and support a critically important Virginia industry. This effort will save 500 miners jobs, and another 650 new miners will be hired as well. That is great news for those miners, their families, and our Commonwealth, as well as our neighboring states of West Virginia and Kentucky. Coal is an important part of our "all of the above" domestic energy strategy. The coal industry powers our economy, and it provides good-paying jobs for our citizens. Again, I want to thank Southern Coal Corporation, Jim and Jay Justice, American Electric Power, and every individual involved in this great example of cooperation in pursuit of job creation. This is a positive moment for Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and our nation's economy.

About a month ago, Mitt Romney traveled to Beallsville, Ohio, for a campaign event with of a group of coal miners. Among other things, the Republicans told his audience that President Obama "took the work requirement out of welfare," a claim which remains patently false.

A month later, the footage from Beallsville, using coal miners as a prop, is the subject of a new Romney campaign attack ad, hoping to convince voters in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that the president hasn't done enough for the coal industry. The ad, however, has become controversial for reasons Romney probably didn't expect.

Mitt Romney's campaign is airing two ads in eastern Ohio that include footage of the coal miners who lost pay because he campaigned at their mine. [...]

The footage is from Romney's Aug. 14 campaign stop at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, owned by a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. It was later learned that the miners on stage were ordered out of the mine because of Romney's campaign stop and were not paid for the portion of their shift that was canceled by the event.

It's also worth noting that several of the miners who appeared behind Romney have said "they were forced to attend" the campaign event by the mine's owner, Robert Murray, an ardent Romney backer and major GOP donor. Asked for an explanation, a plant executive responded, "Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event."

If you don't know what that means, you and I are on the same page.

Ohio AFL-CIO spokesman Michael Gillis told reporters, "The Romney Campaign now knows full well that those miners, wage earners as they are, missed a day's pay when they were required to attend the event. Instead of those workers providing for their families and putting food on the table that day, they were used as political props by a candidate that understands nothing about the plight of the average American."

It's also worth noting that Romney isn't the only Republican with a coal problem. This story out of Kentucky is pretty amazing.

An official with the United Mine Workers of America union lambasted a new TV ad by Republican Andy Barr on Monday because it features a Western Kentucky coal executive who appears to be speaking as an Eastern Kentucky miner.

In the ad, Heath Lovell, the vice president of River View Coal in Union County, accuses Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of trying to destroy the coal industry. Lovell is wearing a t-shirt, bib overalls and a coal miner's helmet. He is identified by name only.

"I've never seen anything so appalling and deceitful from the coal industry and in a campaign," said Steve Earle, a regional vice president of the UMWA in Kentucky. "You have a pencil pusher acting like a coal miner."

Did Republicans assume no one would notice?