Robert Murray, owner of the worlds largest private coal company, declared in 2014 the absolute destruction of the United States coal industry.

If you think its coming back, you dont understand the business, the man known as the last king of coal said at an industry conference . Or youre smoking dope.

Had tree-hugger regulators in the Obama administration long accused of waging a war on coal actually dealt a death blow to the industry that once fueled cross-continental railroads and a majority of Americas power plants? Or did coal fall victim to market forces?

Analysts have long blamed natural gas made cheap by new extraction techniques like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking for devouring the U.S. electricity market, on which coal once had a near monopoly. But the U.S. Energy Information Administration released data Tuesday that indicates a steep nosedive in coal exports since 2012. Exports fell for a fourth consecutive year to 60.3 million short tons, less than half the record volume shipped overseas fives years ago.