The U.S. coal industry is in shambles, and the casualties are mounting

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) The U.S. coal industry is in shambles, and the casualties are mounting. There are bankruptcies, mothballed power plants, and most dramatically, unemployed miners.

Since 2011, when coal prices began an unrelenting slide, cash-strapped companies have cut almost 10,000 jobs a year. That’s a pace of downsizing not seen since highly productive mining machinery (pdf) proliferated in the 1980s and early 1990s, shrinking the need for manpower.



This time, though, U.S. coal production is going down, not up. China’s slowing imports of the fuel are one reason. A bigger one is the boom in cheap natural gas, which has taken market share from coal at power plants and will probably keep doing so.

“The shale revolution has driven natural-gas prices so low that it makes sense for utilities to switch fuels,” William Foiles and Andrew Cosgrove, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, said in a recent note. “More coal miners will likely find themselves out of work.”

No U.S. coal basin is feeling that pain like Central Appalachia, the mountainous stretch of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and neighboring states that looms large in American lore as the cradle of the coal industry. ..............(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-20/what-cheap-gas-did-to-tens-of-thousands-of-coal-jobs

[elleng]

1. and perfectly predictable. They (and we) should have figured it out,

and thought about how to deal with affects on the people directly involved.

True through the entire energy sphere, and shouldn't be rocket science to start addressing the issues.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I feel bad for the miners. Those are good paying jobs for otherwise economically limited

regions. And there are industries (notably railroads) and other businesses that feel the pain further down the line. Where is the help for them?

[orwell]

3. Bad for the miners and their families...

...but natural gas is easier on the environment.

In the long run we need to get away from coal, and all non-renewable energy sources.

[pscot]

4. One big reason Republicans did so well in coal country

last election. They were able to pin the blame for people's economic woes on Democrats and the climate change "hoax". The Koch brothers are up to their ears in this. They have made a lot of money off coal.