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Thanks for the helpful info. re quoting. Will attempt it next time.
Meanwhile, check out www.coalswarm.org for an excellent collection of online articles about various aspects of coal, coalmining, and related issues around the world.
It does not appear that Pennsylvania has suffered much mountaintop removal of its coal, unlike Kentucky and West Virginia (and to a lesser but still deplorable degree, Tennessee and Virginia).
Its continued use has been because its local and cheap. The problem is if it is mined correctly (read in a way that doesn't totally trash the environment) and used in plants that are clean - it is no longer cheap and market forces would close it down.
Then let market forces close them down. That's as it should be. But electric companies are not run by idiots. They know that gas is cheaper today, but they also know that its prices fluctuate wildly year to year. What may look like a bargain this year may not be next year. Plants are built for decades, not for a few years. Coal will still be available a century from now, still at a reasonable price. Gas may be selling for 10X last year's price in a couple years. In fact, that would simply be a its historical nature.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giesela
This push and pull between trying to regulate and enforce environmental laws to control the damage coal does has been a decades long legal fight leading to the status quo with damage continuing. This includes miner deaths due to unsafe conditions.
In my part of the country, where chances are good your coal comes from, coal mining is one of the safest jobs available. Our mines each generally employ 500-800 workers, and those mines generally make it through the year without a single work loss injury. That means not so much as a seriously sprained ankle. Chances of any coal mine employee sustaining a serious work-related injury in his lifetime, let alone being killed at work, is extremely remote. (One chance in 400 of an accident in a given year. If you're a truck driver, it's one in 28.)) Just going from memory, I believe there have been two mine deaths in the past 40 years here. Approximately 6,000 miners are employed in the county.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman
While mining is certainly not the safest job it's far from what you may think as being the most dangerous. For example you're more likely to die driving a truck or putting a roof on a house and then there is the most deadly occupations like logging or fishing. Mining deaths get a lot coverage because when it does happen it's often a lot of them at once, when the garbage guy get killed it's just local news but there is lot more of them getting killed. .
According to this article citing the latest stats from the BLS it's number 10.
1. Job: Fishing
2. Job: Logging workers 3. Job: Aircraft pilots and flight engineers 4. Job: Refuse and recyclable material collectors 5. Job: Roofers
6. Job: Structural iron and steel workers 7. Job: Helpers, construction trades 8. Job: Farmers, ranchers and agricultural managers
9. Job: Truck driver 10. Job: Natural resources and mining
Natural resources and mining are often lumped into one. Natural resources includes oil and gas drilling, which is at least 4 times as dangerous as mining in Wyoming when it comes to non-fatal accidents. We don't have enough fatal mining accidents to register -- as I said, 2 in 40 years, iirc.
Just going from memory, I believe there have been two mine deaths in the past 40 years here. Approximately 6,000 miners are employed in the county.
Those are mostly or all surface mines? The danger is not as great as it is in underground mines. I don't know what the current stats are but they have it down around 20 fatalities per year. It's a heavy industry and as it is with any heavy industry accidents are going to happen.
Those are mostly or all surface mines? The danger is not as great as it is in underground mines. I don't know what the current stats are but they have it down around 20 fatalities per year. It's a heavy industry and as it is with any heavy industry accidents are going to happen.
More so in Don Blankenship run mines than elsewhere.
They should, for the sake of honesty, say "greener coal". Can't see how it could ever be "green" when you burn it and create carbon emissions. I guess if you got coal's emissions equivalent to biodiesel, you might have an argument for "green coal".
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