OBAMA’S WAR ON COAL : 83,000 Coal Jobs Lost And 400 Mines Shuttered
This Labor Day, America has 83,000 fewer coal jobs and 400 coal mines than it did when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, showing that the president has followed through on his pledge to “bankrupt” the coal industry.
A 2015 study found the coal industry lost 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012 during Obama’s first term. During Obama’s second term, the industry employment in coal mining has fallen by another 33,300 jobs, 10,900 of which occurred in the last year alone, according to federal data. Currently, coal mining employs 69,460 Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of the blame for the job losses is targeted at federal regulations aimed at preventing global warming, which caused coal power plants to go bankrupt, resulting in a sharp decline in the price of coal.
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted,” Obama said during a 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board. Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also pledged that “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
Employment has fallen so drastically because coal production has fallen by 15 percent since 2008 as companies have been forced by environmental regulation to shut down 400 mines due to decreasing demand. Companies opened 103 new mines in the U.S. in 2013 while 271 coal mines were idled or shut down, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and cheap natural gas have devastating coal companies as well, even forcing Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal company, to declare bankruptcy earlier this month. Other American coal companies have faced financial problems too. Arch Coal filed for bankruptcy as well in January and coal companies like Alliance Coal announced mass layoffs.
As a result, many ex-coal miners are unemployed and Appalachian “coal country” has faced very real economic devastation as a result. The coal-producing areas of eastern Kentucky have an unemployment rate of 8 percent unemployment rates and parts of West Virginia have double-digit unemployment.
Even Obama has recognized the economic devastation, and stated that opposition to his policies by coal miners and people in Appalachia is “perfectly legitimate,” during a December interview with National Public Radio. However, the situation for coal miners would likely get worse if Obama’s Clean Power Plan is fully implemented. The EIA predicts the plan would more than double the number of coal plants shutting down over the next five years. The shutdowns have a cascading effect, causing coal production to collapse by more than 30 percent over the next decade.
The Obama administration responded by offering a mere $14.5 million in federal funding for programs to retrain out-of-work coal miners, after imposing regulations that greatly hampered the American coal industry
H/T – DailyCaller
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As a man that has worked in the utility business for the past 28 years it is safe to say that
this is the type of propaganda news that plays to the ignorance of folks. What this article
dont tell you is that prior to Pres. Obama going into office, the coal industry had already started it
rapid decline because of the sad state of the depression that the country was going through.
Utilities and big bulk power users were shutting doors while still under Pres. Bush due to the lack
of prosperity and the downturn of the economy. loss of bulk power users meant the loss of generation
meaning the loss of need for coal, also known as supply and demand. These news outlets know
that the majority of people dont have this knowledge about the criterior for the use of coal so in retrospect
they feed you the half truth and those with this knowledge are helping to feed this same false information.
So here it is, it is not Pres. Obama or Hiliary Clintons doing to shut down coal mines, they dont have the power
to do that, this started under Pres. Bush watch and continued through Pres. Obama’s watch but not through
thier doing. Also you should start to look at your senate and Congress for blame, not the Pres. for they are the
ones that write the laws that impact our economy to the point that bulk power users have to shut doors. I always
say to folks “do your own research ” knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss. You decide for yourself
… and you say that as if it was a bad thing!
I want to thank Obama and Hillary for their attack on coal. Conuma Coal just bought Walter Energy Canada’s three coal mines in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Canada. Thanks for the jobs. Too bad for you.