Coal Fuels Brewpubs in Wyoming as Kentucky Mines Misery

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/coal-fuels-brewpubs-in-wyoming-as-kentucky-mines-misery.html

Trying to find the boom in U.S. coal? Stop in the Gillette Brewing Company in Wyoming, which 38-year-old Tom Gorton opened using some of the $70,000 a year he earns mining coal.

“Things were iffy there for a little bit, but it’s picking up now,” Gorton said at his brewery in the center of town, where customers wash down brie baked in a wood-fired oven with gluten-free blue agave ale. “When people have a little extra money, that changes things.”

In the coal region of eastern Kentucky, about 1,300 miles away, extra money is hard to come by. Brandon Farley lost his job there when the James River Coal Co. (JRCCQ) mine closed. Months of looking turned up only one job lead: a minimum wage opportunity at the local Pizza Hut.

“They want coal to be done with,” Farley said. “I believe it’s coming to an end.”

[gejohnston]

1. the trend started 40 years ago

partly because of acid rain. Our coal has a much lower sulfur content than eastern coal, although less desirable for other reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_River_Basin#Coal
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wyoming_and_coal
As you might guess from the second link, the BLM can't win for losing. Every interest group hates them because every interest group, be it ranchers, extraction industries, environmentalists, dirt bike riders, all think the agency is on the take or in the pocket of one of the other groups.
for example:
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/national-coalition-slams-blm-plans-wipe-out-wild-horses-wyoming-checkerboard