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Here’s his bio. He’s not some rube from nowhere:

“Randall Atkins is a founder of Ramaco and has served as the Chairman of our Board of Directors since its inception in 2015. He was also appointed our Chief Executive Officer in 2021. He been involved in energy-related investment and financing activity for over 40 years. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of privately held Ramaco Coal, LLC since its inception in 2011. Prior to forming Ramaco, he was with J.P. Morgan & Co. . He served as the immediate past Chairman of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Coal Council, is a Member of the Coal International Advisory Board of the International Energy Agency in Paris, France and is on the Board of Directors of the National Mining Association. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and a Juris Doctor degree from Washington & Lee University School of Law.”

I went to Washington & Lee law school in the 1990s. It was a great law school. In the 90s it was in the top 20 law schools in the country. But what made it great was the law school community. It was academically difficult, but we were encouraged to help each other. Unlike a lot of law schools, there was no weeding out process. As one of my first professors told us, "All of you are capable of being lawyers, we just want to make you the best lawyers." The law school was in one extremely large building, and everyone was assigned a cubby hole with a desk, which were randomly assigned. No classroom was more than three minutes away. There was an honor code that was strictly enforced, so the professors took you at your word. I once left my laptop computer out on my cubby hole desk for a whole semester and no one bothered it. It was very common to see a dollar bill taped to a vending machine with the note that it had been found by the coke machine.

Since the academic load was pretty heavy, the majority of the students spent most of their day and evening in the law school, you met or could find almost anyone quickly. People actively helped each other with assignments. In my first semester, I had a problem grasping a legal concept. I asked a random third year student for help. She spent about 20 minutes explaining the concept to me. I later learned that she was the editor of the law review. You could drink alcohol in the study area and we did. Guns were not considered a big thing. I had a classmate, who became very interested in turkey hunting. So he would go turkey hunting before class and put his shotgun in the back of his first class and store it in his cubby hole for the rest of the day. No one thought or said a thing. Imagine a very large well behaved co-ed fraternity.