Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (click here) told coal miners in Kentucky on Monday that he will move to repeal a rule limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, assuring them, “The war against coal is over.”
Speaking at an event in Hazard, Ky., with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Pruitt said his agency will publish the new proposed rule Tuesday.
“Tomorrow, in Washington, D.C., I’ll be a signing a proposed rule to withdraw the so-called Clean Power Plan of the past administration, and thus begin the effort to withdraw that rule,” Pruitt said....
The government in general needs to stop lying to the coal communities as they continue to bemoan the old industry. The retraining puts coal miners into good jobs. There is no job in the USA that is going to pay $60 to $70 thousand dollars again, especially in an industry laced with danger. If former coal miners are unhappy about the loss of their high pay, then join the rest of the country in demanding the return to good wages for work.
May 20. 2017
...The rate of production statewide in 2016 (click here) is the lowest since 1939, according to the report. In Eastern Kentucky, however, where quarterly production fell 21.6 percent, the production rate is the lowest since 1917.
That was near the end of a decade when the construction of railroads opened the way for explosive growth in the coal industry in Eastern Kentucky, with companies building wholly owned towns such as Lynch, Wheelwright and Jenkins for the workers needed to run their mines.
In Harlan County, for instance, the population tripled from 1910 to 1920, according to Miners, Millhands and Mountaineers, former University of Kentucky professor Ron Eller’s account of the industrialization of the Appalachian South....
Coal jobs have been destroyed over the years due to mechanization. Let's begin with 1937 and the invention of the coal shuttle cart. It was the beginning of the end of coal jobs. Employees probably believed the company was being good to them.
May 1997
...Safety was a major problem. In the early days, the detection of methane gas and low oxygen content was done, oddly enough, by the use of canary birds. Later on, the flame safety lamp was developed to detect a low percent of oxygen or an accumulation of combustible gas. The coal seams, then, were the thicker seams of coal which were mined by the proverbial pick-and-shovel methods. The coal roof supported the slate overhead and this was the roof support method prior to the use of mine timbers.
One of the typical working places for hand loading in those early days was where the rail was placed into the working face and a small mine car was installed. The coal was loaded by hand into the mine car. Any rock partings that existed were carved out and separated in the workplace before the coal was sent to a preparation plant. In later years, wood timbers were used for roof support. These consisted of vertical posts and what were called cross-bars were used to support the slate overhead. These methods were the best that were available at that time but still required much improvement.
Then, along came machinery which lifted these heavy wooden cross-bars to the roof and allowed the legs to be placed under these cross-bars to support the roof. The use of this heavy equipment for roof support became more sophisticated year after year. Heavy hydraulic equipment was developed and it diminished the amount of manual labor required. The timber, that was used in this method of roof support, required that many trees be cut. Handling the timbers was a tremendous job as was delivering them to the working place underground. At times, the weight of the slate roof, although supported by timbers and later, steel cross bars, was heavy enough to bend even the steel cross bars. When the slate would fall and a passageway was necessary, removing the slate became a difficult and challenging job. In the late 40's, steel roof bolts, which were similar to toggle bolts that you use around the house, replaced timbers. The steel bolts would penetrate the roof overlying rock. The laminated slate would be bound together by these roof bolts....
McConnell brags about 6900 coal jobs still in Kentucky. That is a minor amount of job compared to the new employment sector. It is an old argument because the majority of Kentuckians and Americans in general do not realize there will never be large numbers of employment in coal again. It is the sign of the times and Kentuckians, probably for the first time in awhile, are feeling the pain of low wages just like the majority of Americans.
