I was watching a news series, "Vice", that discussed the future of coal mining. The interesting part was 'the coal is gone' in some areas. In effect, if you burn it up, its gone and ain't coming back. But the coal companies have figured out how minimize their labor by getting away from coal mines for coal pits. In other areas, the companies have gone in for mountain top removal and open pit coal mines. Bob Wilson
It is a difficult business: Appeals court affirms conviction of coal CEO in deadly blast Charleston Gazette-Mail | Water lab manager gets 2 years for faking reports
Not my cup of tea. Digging in rock makes sparks. Coal burns. Coal also off-gasses. Digging coal may cause sparks. But you have to admire the engineering that allows men to literally top mountains. We see a similar thing here in SoCal. But hills are topped and valleys filled for subdivisions.
I remember a billboard for a SoCal housing development called 'Valley Crest'. No idea what those two words mean, together. Maybe you hit it.
War on Coal seems to be waged by methane producers even more than by renewable-E. If one only loves coal, it is tricky to know who to hate The West's Largest Coal Plant May Close. It's a Big Deal. | Climate Central
Coal, Oil, and natural gas exploration and recovery are much the same. Daniel Yergins' book . . . The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power . . . is an entertaining read. Or the movie There Will Be Blood. We have to have energy. Coal companies started using Long Wall machines back in the 60's . . . maybe earlier. One machine replaced several workers. In the 60's coal hit $ 100 a ton. It was like being long in stocks last year .
Current thermal coal $USD 43 per metric ton. Don't know what market force could lift that. In US, western 'works' have much lower costs than Appalachia. Zeroing out water quality regs, and providing government (taxpayer) protection for Appalachian operators against workers' health-care costs seem inadequate. Appalachia needs new industries. Losing presidential candidate said so. Winning candidate may come to agree, before 2018 elections.
