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If you ask anybody in the coal industry what would happen if Obama is re-elected, they'd say the coal industry is done," said Sedgmer, whose husband, Ryan, is a coal miner and whose family has depended on the industry for at least four generations.
Is she just being chumped by the repub's or is there any truth to this?
Chumped by repubs. Coal has been a dying industry for a century, the seams are dwindling, and has been getting by on murder all along. No other industry is allowed to exist in the state of WV without kissing the ring of coal, and any mention of holding them accountable for what they're doing isn't a subject any citizen is allowed to speak of freely/ fully consider without people getting nervous. There are billboards up and down the highway implying a black man stole your coal jobs. It's a good thing the natives are conditioned to expect lies out of the mouths of anything representing coal.
Coal at best is going to buy time but more effort needs to be invested into diversity of industry and coal won't let it happen keeping it's death grip to the bitter end. It's more like a hostage situation than an economic plan.
It is impossible to know exactly how much coal there is, because it is buried underground. But we can make estimates.
* "Total resources" is our best estimate of the total amount of coal, including undiscovered in the United States. Currently, total resources are estimated to be about 4 trillion short tons.1 Total Resources includes several categories of coal with various degrees of geologic assurance and data reliability.
* But not all coal is feasible to mine. The Demonstrated Reserve Base2 is the sum of coal in both measured and indicated resource categories of reliability, representing 100% of the in-place coal that could be mined commercially at a given time. EIA estimates the Demonstrated Reserve Base to measure 484.5 billion short tons.
* "Estimated Recoverable Reserves" include only the coal that can be mined with today’s mining technology, after accessibility constraints and recovery factors are considered. EIA estimates there are 259.5 billion short tons of U.S. recoverable coal reserves, about 54% of the Demonstrated Reserve Base.
Based on U.S. coal production for 2010, the U.S. recoverable coal reserves represent enough coal to last 239 years. However, EIA projects in the most recent Annual Energy Outlook (January 2012) that U.S. coal production will increase at about 0.4% per year for the period 2009-2035. If that growth rate continues into the future, U.S. recoverable coal reserves would be exhausted in about 168 years if no new reserves are added.
That 168 years is based on the top section of this pyramid "estimated recoverable reserves" , the rest is potential resources which could extend the 168 years considerably. .
Heaven forbid we, as a country, finally start moving towards more modern sources of energy that are renewable, cheaper, and greener and ween ourselves from foreign and dirtier sources of energy. Why aren't you doing the same whining for switchboard operators and steam engine conductors after their jobs became obsolete after technology took over? Sorry, but that is the way it is. Someone always loses a job once we start progressing with newer and more efficient technology.
Must you be so frightened that it will? Because the energy equation is crucial to economic growth for the planet. Not just one source, or one industry.
So the more people resort to lying to protect something that doesn't deserve protection the longer they maintain a fixed market choking all parties involved to death.
In the future that is inevitable but this discussion is about the present.
We're talking about past present and future. When coal can't let anything else exist, that not business. That's organized crime. A centuries + worth of resources have been harvested out of these mountains and somehow it never pays. It pays just enough to cover the note on iron lungs. No reinvestment into the community. No thought to anyones future here even if it means taking the mountain out of the mountain state. There's a bumper sticker that says coal keeps the lights on. There's another one that says coal keeps the lights on at the funeral parlor. Don't lie.
When coal can't let anything else exist, that not business.
How does coal not let anything else exist other than it's low cost?
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No reinvestment into the community.
You expect this to happen with even more expensive alternatives? Whether it's the coal industry supplying your power or the solar industry they will be run by businessman who's interest is to make a profit. You're not going to change society by making people pay more for electric because the the new company has a nice face.
When coal can't let anything else exist, that not business. That's organized crime.
I guess you've never heard of nuclear energy or hydro-electric plants?
Of course not, because coal "didn't let them exist"!!
Would it be organized crime if and when solar or wind energy companies charge you for the electricity?
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No reinvestment into the community.
In many places, coal BUILT the entire town!!!
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No thought to anyones future here even if it means taking the mountain out of the mountain state.
And you ARE thinking about coal miner's future? By taking away their livelihood....
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