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Major Kentucky coal producer declares bankruptcy - 1100 jobs and more at risk:
Note the reasons by the CEO that the company is dying:
"Hoops cited declining demand for thermal and metallurgical coal, declining commodity prices, and increasingly strict regulatory oversight, in addition to heightened competition from natural gas and renewable energy."
Sounds like the FREE MARKET at work- the FREE MARKET that is so scared to Republican politicians, wouldn't you say? Ohhhhhhh......I guess not when its inconvenient to their donors.
It's so unfortunate that the people of Kentucky were the first to vote Trump into office for this - but he loves the poorly educated, right?
Trump has tried to repeal the regulations that others put on this industry - Hillary came right out and said she was closing them down and they'd have to find other jobs.
You have a devastating illness - one doctor says - we're going to try everything in our power to fight this - another says - you'll be dead in 6 months - just go home and wait - who are you going to have treat you?
Neither can perform miracles - but one gives you hope!
Check Energy prices, including gasoline across the board. They are lower, even with inflation. Trump's policies are helping to crate more Domestic Supply which helps keep world energy prices low. Not just coal, but oil, and natural gas production. Fossil fuel runs the world. Trump knows this, and is making it less complicated to extract our natural resources which we have in abundant supply.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilot1
Check Energy prices, including gasoline across the board. They are lower, even with inflation. Trump's policies are helping to crate more Domestic Supply which helps keep world energy prices low. Not just coal, but oil, and natural gas production. Fossil fuel runs the world. Trump knows this, and is making it less complicated to extract our natural resources which we have in abundant supply.
You're not telling me anything new - but the TDS affected seldom understand common sense when you try to present them with reasons. They always want you to prove your statement but rarely believe it anyway when presented with the info. Very few know much about the economy.
"The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund covers healthcare expenses and disability benefits for coal miners with black lung disease and their dependents when the miner’s employer has gone bankrupt or is otherwise not able to provide these benefits. Black lung is a progressive and fatal disease caused by the accumulation of coal and silica dust in the lungs, and resultant scarring. The trust fund is supported by an excise tax that mining companies pay on each ton of coal produced."
"Despite substantial grassroots pressure from miners and their supporters, the black lung excise tax has been slashed in half. This amounts to a tax break for coal companies at the expense of these crucial resources for people who contracted a fatal disease while working in the mines."
"The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund is expected to run ever-deeper into debt, potentially putting it on the chopping block in future budget negotiations."
"Meanwhile, the financial burden will now shift to the general treasury — the taxes paid by you and I and the coal miners themselves."
Renewable energy is pricing coal out of the electricity market.
More than 100 financial institutions have baked off of coal producers.
"Chubb Ltd., the nation’s largest commercial insurance company, announced it will move away from insuring and investing in coal, ... joining more than a dozen European and Australian insurers that have already adopted similar policies."
Clinton was honest about the coal industry. I remember an interview during the run up to the election where they were talking to a local. He said the miners were angry. The interviewer asked if there was a future in coal and the local replied no, but miners don't want to hear that. That's what Trump gave them, false promises. And those former coal miners are largely on Disability. We pay for the black lung disease. We support them AND give them health care for life. Coal is expensive for many reasons. Obama offered them retraining, funded by the government and they largely refused. They believed Trump's promises so I have little sympathy. Other parts of the country learn a new trade while Appalachia hopes to go back in time.
This is the truth of it right here!
Trump is a snake oil salesman.
Renewable energy is pricing coal out of the electricity market.
It's difficult to compete against subsidized competitors but impossible to compete against a mandate. Most states have mandates in place which guarantees a market for renewable energy regardless of cost. That said renewables cannot replace coal, it's been replaced by natural gas.
It's difficult to compete against subsidized competitors but impossible to compete against a mandate. Most states have mandates in place which guarantees a market for renewable energy regardless of cost. That said renewables cannot replace coal, it's been replaced by natural gas.
I'm not in the energy sector, but have had utilities (electric and gas) as clients. My perception is that since Fracking, Natural Gas is more available, and hence less expensive. It is the fuel of choice for just about all new power plants. As nukes get decommissioned they are being replaced with Natural Gas fired plants, NOT COAL. And as coal plants reach the end of their useful life will get replaced by Natural Gas.
Another perception I have is that a lot of our coal is going to China, and other foreign sources. I wonder the percentage.
My guess is that number does not include the unemployable.....
"Harlan County is the nation’s fifth most dependent on federal programs, according to the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. In 2016 some 54 percent of the income of the county’s roughly 26,000 residents came from programs like Social Security and Medicaid, food stamps — formally known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and the earned-income tax credit. That is up from 28 percent in 1990.
Surrounding counties are similarly dependent."
You can't square that circle, friend. It can't be that these people are working decent wage jobs (low unemployment means high wages according to right wing doctrine) and yet over 1/2 of the ENTIRE INCOME of the places is from my tax money.......
These numbers have been going up and up and up and up. Doubled since 1990.
I think those of us who scratch our heads happen to be correct in this particular instance.
Remember, it's opposite world....
"As Americans have grown more reliant on federal programs over the last 50 years, they have increasingly embraced the Republican Party"
As you well know, this is the opposite of what is often spewed here and elsewhere as "news".
Harlan Country. That’s where “Justified“ was set for the most part, right?
Now, I know it wasn’t a documentary, but it sounds like it wasn’t too far off the mark.
Further, from 2017, “Child homelessness in Kentucky is the highest in the nation, largely due to the amount of opioid overdoses. After Harlan County in eastern Kentucky was devastated by the recession, many turned to opioids. Opioid addiction hasn’t abated, and now the county reports 26% of children as homeless.”
It’s just going to get worse with these shut downs, isn’t it?
But as was already noted, too many didn’t want to hear about retraining, etc.
So, so sad.
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