From Appalachian Voices and iLoveMountains.org

Strip-mining in SW Virginia

Biodivsersity in America

Mountaintop removal means FEWER jobs

in this country went away during the 1950s, BEFORE the Clean Air Act of 1963, the Air Quality Act in 1967, the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970, and Clean Air Act Amendments in 1977 and 1990.  In fact, mining jobs increases slightly from 1963 through 1980.  What does this prove?  It's very clear: there's absolutely no correlation between decreased coal mining jobs and environmental regulations.  In fact, what has driven down coal employment is replacement of labor with capital (machinery, etc.), as well as the move away from relatively labor intensive (and dangerous) underground mining to less labor-intensive (and more mechanized) modern surface mining.

VEPT (Va Energy Patterns and Trends) shows that in Virginia in 1980 there were 800 mines and by 2001 there were just 328 mines of which only 204 were producing quality coal or "coke".
The result was a 40% decline in jobs in 20 years. If you laso recal there were major issues with the rail industry during the period as well, especially Norfolk Southern which transport 90% of Virginia coal and CSX as well as jobs at the Port of Hampton Roads which serves KY, WV and VA coal interests for international demand ( Japan for example is worlds largest net importer of coal for the auotmobile industry)
What has driven down coal employment is in fact the number of mines and the priduction efficiency. Those that could not compete while the price of coal was falling and those who could not implement the regulation standards required on the Clean Air laws ended up closing.

In 1990 Va reached peak production at 46.5 million tons and by 2004 it was 31 million with 33% of that being surface mining. Part iof the issue is not so much production  but was the costs associated with non-surface mines which Virginia has plenty. Much of VA coal is in thin seams requiring more costs to generate per ton than say Wyoming ( the nations top coal mining state by the way) where much of it is surface mining and from a competitive point is generating more production at less underlying costs. Western states have doubled production in the last 20 years while Appalachia has seen its numbers decrease in terms of tonage.

By the way Virginia provided the nations electric utilities with 18,314 thousand short tons of which 14,293 went to our neighbors in the South Atlantic states.

And for the record the Commonwealth of Virginia (Natural Resources) has shown that each single coal mining job supports THREE non-coal mining jobs in Virigina. These jobs are in the service industry, transportation (rail/port) and business in coal communities.

From a political view this industry is a tough one. You mine the coal in say Wise or Buchanon or Lee County (local mining jobs) you load  coal and transport it by rail via Norfolk Southern ( rail jobs) to Port of Hampton Roads for shipment (Port jobs)...we just cross the the entire State impacting more than just the SW Va from an economic point of view and it is not lost on the political process.

Remember the days of the massive Newport News Shipbuilding industry? I wonder just where the basis for all that steel we used to produce our Naval infrastructure there for decades came from? It was the coalfields of Appalachia where the coal was shipped to coal furnaces by rail to produce the steel we required. Now those jobs to have somehow withered away.

So the Wise plant or any other for that matter supports more than just the "local" economy when we consider the entire economic picture. And those that say that the coal will be gone in 15 to 20 years need to review exactly just what type of coal they are referring to. Fact is "surface" coal is declining rapidly which may be want they are referring to but coal production capabilities are not declining in reality if they are able to get to the deep coal of Appalachia but it appears the political climate may not allow those mines to extract that coal. That could result in the end and the domination of the West in the coal industry and I guess that is just fine with the "not in my backyard crowd".

Wyoming coal (and Western coal more broadly) is driving Virginia coal (and Eastern coal more broadly) out of business because it's cheaper and easier to mine.

But you must be willing to pay higher for the electric utility because that coal would have to be transported from the West to the East and Southeast resulting in higher rates, much higher by the way which is fine if we are willing to tell people that going in with the activism against the plants and coal in general. If we are fine with the coal industry closing up shop then we need to be prepared to accept higher rates as a result of our cause.
As it stands today much of the Western coal goes to Canada- you know the country supplying the largest % of oil to our nation that everyone tends to ignore as they focus all the rhetoric at the Middle East.
Coal very well may be the next tobacco in terms of Virginia.

is not relevant.  It's a world market for oil, which is known as a "fungible" commodity.  What this means is that which specific country the United States buys its oil from doesn't really make an iota of difference.

As to your point that "much of the Western coal goes to Canada," that's not accurate at all. According to EIA, in 2007, the US produced around 1,148 million short tons of coal, of which around 60% was produced west of the Mississippi River. Also in 2007, the US exported 59 million short tons, or about 5% of total U.S. coal production.  Around 30% of these 59 million tons (again, that's just 5% of total U.S. coal production) went to Canada.  In other words, only a tiny percentage of western U.S. coal production in 2007 was exported at all, let alone to Canada.

Coal by 2030 will have made large gains on the % of energy consumption increasing by 28% when compared to oil. Both oil and coal are "world" markets unless you discount the fact that Australia (the worlds largest exporter) Indonesia, China and South Africa for steam coal are not exactly in the global economy and the U.S. and Australia lead in the way in "coke" coal.
When referencing coal you have to stipulate the kind of coal. There is data to support your claim but it does not take into account all forms of coal (Anthracite,Bituminious, Lignite) Metallurgical, Steam and Coke coal etc.

In fact the EIA as you referenced stated in the International Energy Outlook 2007 that Canada "in recent years has been the largest importer of US coal" mostly by way of the Powder River Basin.

To be fair Canada's imports may decline as Ontario plans to close four coal based utilities by 2014.

My point was people want to ignore the influence Canada/Mexico have on our oil imports as they continually use oil as a sword against the Middle East but like coal ignore the data on exactly where we are importing/exporting oil and coal for that matter in this gloabl economy.

Just like the references by the Clinton campaign regarding NAFTA in recent weeks it would be interesting to see the net changes in % of both oil/coal data since NAFTA has come on line given the fact that coal represented 26% of the total world energy consumption in 2004 and is projected to increase 74% by the EIA by 2030.

is it just me or can we at least agree that we have varying viewpoint and perspectives on coal and Virginia but am curious why it is you feel compelled to troll my every participation on your thread. You are obviously an activist and god bless you but to make progress in these areas it takes those of us on each side of the issue to make progress through undertanding and compromise, unfortunately is not soley about science but also about people, Virginians in particular.
If I were not willing to respect and listen to your viewpoint on such matter I certainly would not be here participating in this thread and would only wish you to would do the same.

Here's another great source of information on the impact of coal mining in Appalachia, truly a national disgrace!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

One point it makes is how quickly, within the next 15 years according to USGS, Appalachian coal will be exhausted. Meanwhile prices have recently doubled, and production is plummeting. How are the current Appalachian coal power  plants, much less any new ones, going to get fuel in 15-20 years? Import coal from from Wyoming or Australia? Natural gas conversion is going to be another tough option, further raising electricity prices.
But the moonscaped terrain, toxic sediment, destoyed valleys and watersheds constitute an environmental catastrophe of global proportions, ruining one of the crown natural resources of North America.
I'd like to know if politicians like Mitch McConnell who are so cozy with the coal industry have any real comprehension of what is happening to their eco-system? BTW, "Big Money Mitch" --
see:
http://www.campaignmoney.org/c...
--was just voted onto the LCV Dirty Dozen list! Speaking of, hasn't his wife, as Sec of Labor, had something to do with the relaxation of regulations controlling mountain top removal in the past 7 years? as well as mine safety regs? The whole Republican coal/money connection to relaxation of the regs needs a good expose! I don't recall that mountain top removal was taking place on this scale in the 1990's under the Clinton Administration.

Think about it.  What has caused the continuing economic destruction of Appalachia?

Governmental regulations?  No.  There are fewer and fewer of these.

Environmentalists?  No.  Not in a million years.

Decreasing price for coal?  No.  The price keeps going up.

Decreasing coal production?  No.  It has gone up since 1950.

Undocumented foreign workers?  You must be kidding.

Strip and mountaintop removal mining?  BINGO!!!

Surface coal production has gone up, and, at the same time, underground miners have lost their jobs.  Shaft mines are closed.  Miners lose their health and retirement benefits as the UMWA membership drops.  Miners' unemployment benefits run out as a hand full of men with dozers and dynamite blow the mountains apart, shoving the overburden into the creeks and valleys below.  Put the blame where it should be.

Send the strippers to Las Vegas where they belong!

Maybe someone out there would be hard up enough to watch them work on stage.

In its haste to build a coal fired power plant in Wise County, Dominion seems to be following the lead of the bad guy in John Huston's TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) who told Humphrey Bogart:

"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges"

I have visited the site and viewed the on going construction for this yet-to-be-permitted plant.  Dominion is obviously telling the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia:

"Permits?  We ain't got no permits.  We don't need no permits.  We don't have to show you any stinking permits."

Is Dominion thumbing its collective nose at the people of SWVA and Commonwealth in general?

"Stinking," indeed!

John Bolton, MD, FAAP
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco