It would be very sensible given most of the lending institutions...

It would be very sensible given most of the lending institutions now have lunatic policies around not lending to coal companies. Normally too once a company is debt free it will swing to a higher PE ratio as their is much less debt/financial risk o the discount rate implied in a PE ratio can go lower. Often debt funds carry covenants too that restrict limit / payment of dividends, so once your free of the debt , you can be free of such payout restrictions. Not sure of what covenants are currently attached to WHC's.