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Exactly, just watch Matewan. A movie about the company town of Matewan, West Virginia. Back before miners were unionized. The mining company resorted to some very criminal acts including homicide to stop the miners from unionizing, finally resulting in a full on battle between the mercenaries the mining company hired and the citizens of the town
Matewan was written and directed by John Sayles
Cast: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham, David Strathairn
The Gas Oil Party is in charge. There is no hope for the coal areas of our country. They need new investment and a better education to get ahead. That new investment will not be in the coal fields.
You must have missed it there was a war on nuclear energy just like there's a war on coal.
Well we didn't have a good handle on disposing of nuclear waste decades ago. Plus 8 mile island, multiple Soviet nuclear disasters, and most recently Japan are scary events.
Nuclear is great but there's not much room for error.
The natural gas, war on coal shills have a vested interested in the gas market because the minerals are actually owned by landowners all over the country. When contracts are signed with the oil and gas companies by the mineral rights owners it's explicitly stated that the price of NG will effect how much money they get also known as royalties.
People are hoping coal gets phased out because they're going to get rich off of natural gas when it's the only option left.
I quite assure you when the war on coal is over, the price of natural gas is going to skyrocket...you can take that to the bank.
The oil and gas barons are the biggest shysters you will ever see in business. The price of natural gas is a price controlled commodity. I've talked to guys that work for the legal department at the oil and gas companies they've explained the whole thing to me.
It's a huge game that is totally controlled by what the price of NG and the oil and gas companies try to screw over the landowners on a daily basis. They're told to try and take advantage of older people that don't understand the legal contracts and everything.
Sounds like you bet on the wrong team.
Why would natural gas skyrocket because the "war on coal" is over? Lay out that economic case....
Yeah, the coal mining companies didn't even put any effort into hiding the fact they sent hired thugs out to murder people who stood up for the miners. Police Chief Sid Hatfield was murdered in that town by those hired killers.
Yep.
Mother Jones had some tales to tell about coal companies.
We cannot just tell these people, "Go get an education because life is not fair." or "go clean the toilet" lol
If the industry is dying (and I am sure it is), there should be an option for these people.
What's the old adage? "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.
We've tried government funded retraining programs, but the jobs that are typically available in the areas affected pay a fraction of the jobs they are replacing. Training programs in higher paying fields are problematic because so few of the workers are willing to relocate or have the requisite educational levels. Since mining towns sprang up literally in the middle of nowhere because of one industry, the areas that depend on mining tend to be off of the beaten path, comparatively speaking, and lack the infrastructure and trained workforce to successfully compete with other areas for new employers.
It's been a problem that has been addressed in one way or another by both parties for at least the last 50 years with only limited success.
Even if mining comes back to a degree, it will be with more robotics and fewer jobs that will require more training and specialization.
Mother Jones had some tales to tell about coal companies.
One of the reasons transportation (shipping and railroads) began to move towards oil for steam power was they simply got fed up with king coal. If it wasn't owners/management playing games with prices and steady supply it was the unions and labor actions interfering with the latter. You cannot power ships or locomotives on regular schedules without (then) a reliable and steady supply of coal.
On the domestic side consumers were also getting fed up with fluctuating prices and supply for coal. As oil became more available, and or areas were piped for natural gas people switched.
Despite largely delivering upon a no strike pledge for the duration of WWII there were labor actions from coal miners. This prompted Congress to pass and was singed into law the Smith-Connally Act which mandated cooling off periods and gave the federal government powers to intervene in labor actions.
King Coal simply got to big for its britches and got taken down a peg or two.
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