EXHIBIT 31.1

                        Certification of CEO Pursuant to
                 Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14 and 15d-14
                             as Adopted Pursuant to
                  Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

I, Daniel A. Roling, certify that:

         1. I have reviewed this report on Form 10-Q of National Coal Corp.;

         2. Based on my  knowledge,  this  report  does not  contain  any untrue
statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact  necessary to make
the statements made, in light of the  circumstances  under which such statements
were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

         3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the
financial  condition,  results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as
of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

         4. The registrant's  other certifying  officer(s) and I are responsible
for establishing and maintaining  disclosure controls and procedures (as defined
in Exchange  Act Rules  13a-15(e)  and  15d-15(e))  and  internal  control  over
financial  reporting  (as defined in Exchange Act Rules  13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)
for the registrant and have:

                  a)       Designed such disclosure controls and procedures,  or
caused  such  disclosure  controls  and  procedures  to be  designed  under  our
supervision,  to ensure that material  information  relating to the  registrant,
including its  consolidated  subsidiaries,  is made known to us by others within
those  entities,  particularly  during the period in which this  report is being
prepared;

                  b)       Designed   such  internal   control  over   financial
reporting,  or caused such  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  to be
designed under our supervision,  to provide reasonable  assurance  regarding the
reliability of financial  reporting and the preparation of financial  statements
for  external  purposes  in  accordance  with  generally   accepted   accounting
principles;

                  c)       Evaluated   the  effectiveness  of  the  registrant's
disclosure  controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions
about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end
of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

                  d)       Disclosed   in  this   report   any   change  in  the
registrant's  internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the
registrant's most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant's  fourth fiscal quarter
in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected,  or is reasonably
likely to materially  affect,  the registrant's  internal control over financial
reporting; and

         5. The registrant's  other certifying  officer(s) and I have disclosed,
based  on  our  most  recent  evaluation  of  internal  control  over  financial
reporting,  to  the  registrant's  auditors  and  the  audit  committee  of  the
registrant's   board  of  directors  (or  persons   performing   the  equivalent
functions):

                  a)       All  significant deficiencies and material weaknesses
in the design or operation of internal  control over financial  reporting  which
are reasonably  likely to adversely affect the  registrant's  ability to record,
process, summarize and report financial information; and

                  b)       Any  fraud,  whether or not  material,  that involves
management or other  employees who have a significant  role in the  registrant's
internal control over financial reporting.

Date: November 17, 2008             /S/ DANIEL A. ROLING
                                    -------------------------------------
                                    Daniel A. Roling
                                    President and Chief Executive Officer