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I honestly think they're on the verge of announcing a long delayed new energy source, fusion in all probability. They're letting the oil market go down and the Saudis are getting ready to evacuate, they want to ban coal, they keep fighting natural gas. They're still throwing money away in green energy but that's just a money making scam.
Maybe Fukushima finally pushed them to decide to stop risking catastrophe and reveal that they're ready for more energy being produced than ever before. Will we be forgiving of them or just so happy at cheap energy we won't care?
When I was a kid the creek through town ran ORANGE with sulfur.
The poor practices of the past are certainly not what they are in the present. Mine run off is tightly controlled.
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I've spent lots of time in abandoned strip mine areas four wheeling and shooting. The land isn't good for much else, and nobody wants to live there.
Those properties were created long before current laws preventing it, there is lot of those areas in my neck of the woods too. They are slowly but surely reclaiming them. As I've already mentioned it's current mining that is being used to fund the reclamation of those properties. They will flatten and contour the waste piles, backfill where required, address the run off issues and finish with top soil and seed.
This was a stripping pit that was more than 100 feet deep, it was like that for more than 75 years+.
The poor practices of the past are certainly not what they are in the present. Mine run off is tightly controlled.
Those properties were created long before current laws preventing it, there is lot of those areas in my neck of the woods too. They are slowly but surely reclaiming them. As I've already mentioned it's current mining that is being used to fund the reclamation of those properties. They will flatten and contour the waste piles, backfill where required, address the run off issues and finish with top soil and seed.
This was a stripping pit that was more than 100 feet deep, it was like that for more than 75 years+.
None of those regulations you cite would exist AT ALL without the environmental movement. The same one y'all fought tooth and nail. And past practices demonstrate exactly what would happen if Big Coal has their way.
You're welcome for being saved from your own deliberate ignorance and refusal to build ANY real economy outside of raping the land.
Personally I'm glad the coal industry has existed. For all the destruction it wrought, coal ABSOLUTELY brought us humans into the modern era. But times have changed and now we know just how destructive coal is: acid rain, soot, heavy metals, etc. We have better, cheaper, cleaner alternatives now. Time to grow up, move on, and go get a real job rather than demanding special treatment.
You and other locals are often unwilling to do that. I understand it, but I've got no sympathy. Over time your town's kids will do precisely what I did: they'll move away to better opportunities in better parts of the country. Leaving your towns decaying just like my home town... businesses boarded up, populated by drug addicts, welfare cheats, and kids to dumb or lazy to move their careers beyond Walmart or some bottom-feeder factory over in the next town.
I'm telling you buddy: embrace change. Otherwise you've chosen marginalization.
My dad was from coal country (Eastern KY), my grandfather was a coal miner. Coal jobs have been declining in Appalachia for decades due to mechanization and switching from labor intensive underground mines to surface mines where a 10 dudes and tons of dynamite can mine a mountain.
The reality is EPA regulations finished off an already declining coal industry. People have lost jobs in coal. It's also a reality that switching from coal to gas for power plants means a much cleaner environment. Fewer people will have asthma or get cancer from living near toxic coal waste.
Good post.
The main problem for Eastern Kentucky coal isn't Obama or the EPA. The easily mineable seams of coal are depleted. There is coal left, but it's deeper and thus more expensive to mine. The coal currently mined there is more expensive than coal that is easier to reach in Wyoming. Add to that fracking and a resulting glut of cheaper and cleaner natural gas, and you have less demand for EKY coal.
Again, regulations need to be practical and provide benefits. Regulating just for the sake of regulating is absurd.
It's less that 1% of the global pool, this is a negligible amount even compared to natural emissions.
They do provide benefits. A cleaner environment. Coal belongs in the dustbin of history as an energy source. Even the so-called "clean coal" just brings more environmental destruction. For example, foreign-owned Graymont acquired mineral rights from the state of Michigan so they can strip mine 10,000 acres of public land (state forest and part of the Hiawatha National Forest) for limestone for use in coal power plants: State Approves Mineral Rights Transaction With Graymont Mining at Hiawatha | March 12, 2015 | www.stignacenews.com | St. Ignace News
So the destruction extends even farther than the direct pollution, and the destruction of land for the coal mining itself.
Midwestern coal plants have been polluting the northeast for decades. The prevailing winds bring it to us.
I grew up in coal country, and I can say that you're 100% full of **** here.
When I was a kid the creek through town ran ORANGE with sulfur. There were signs warning you not to touch the water.
I've spent lots of time in abandoned strip mine areas four wheeling and shooting. The land isn't good for much else, and nobody wants to live there. They remove/flatten entire MOUNTAIN TOPS! The land is pretty well ruined once companies are done with it. And once the coal companies move on, there's nothing left of the local economy either.
But hey, at least a few fat-cats get wealthy off ruining your health and your land. Makes it all worthwhile as you die of black lung (like my step grandpa) on ruined land, huh?
This blind, proud, self-destructive ignorance is a big part of why I'll never come back to my home town for more than a visit. I'm not into killing myself so that other men can get rich.
I notice all the people in WV sharing beautiful fall foliage pictures - are 100% where the land has NEVER BEEN MINED.
Not those parts where mountain tops have been blown up.
I hope that we are moving away from coal and toward cleaner energy. Things change; we have to change with it.
I notice all the people in WV sharing beautiful fall foliage pictures - are 100% where the land has NEVER BEEN MINED.
Not those parts where mountain tops have been blown up.
"And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
-John Fogerty, "Paradise"
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Originally Posted by Ringo1
I hope that we are moving away from coal and toward cleaner energy. Things change; we have to change with it.
They do provide benefits. A cleaner environment. .
Firstly we need context, in this case we were talking about 1 to 10 percent reduction in the deposition rates of mercury in the US.
Secondly you are seeking to ignore the health benefits fossil fuels have provided. It's not a coincidence that lifespans, overall health and quality of life has expanded along with the use of fossil fuels.
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Midwestern coal plants have been polluting the northeast for decades. The prevailing winds bring it to us
A few years back New Jersey and a few other states were suing other states becsue of this. I have the perfect solution for this. Any electricity or natural resources like natural gas or coal being exported from states like Pennsylvania into states like New Jersey will come with an environmental impact fee. This will drive the rates in states like New Jersey up even further beyond the outrageous amounts they are paying now. Clearly the residents of Pennsylvanian should be compensated for the environmental damage caused by New Jersey's consumption. That or we could just pull the plug and let New Jersey develop it's own resources.
Last edited by thecoalman; 12-26-2015 at 06:17 AM..
I'm not all into coal and supporting it for energy.
Buy you gotta admit this process was handled terribly.
They just demonized the whole industry.
I agree in long run we should switch to better technologies.
But government should've at least support or let them make some money until most of workers retire and business owners invest in other sectors.
Should've been a transitory period for all involved.
Yet here we are
So sad for locals.
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