Coal miners to get more of the shaft

[packman]

West Virginia and Kentucky cutting back on state coal mine inspections, letting federal gov. pick up that bag of responsibility - AND we all know what is going on in the Trump administration about safety and regulations.

"..backers of those proposals argue that state inspections can afford to be cut in part because federal officials do their own inspections. Under federal law, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which is part of the Labor Department, inspects every active coal mine at least four times each year.


But Kentucky and West Virginia have long had their own safety programs as well, under the rationale that the states share an obligation to protect miners and prevent disasters like the one at Upper Big Branch, which claimed 29 West Virginia miners in 2010. Advocates like Oppegard argue that the state inspections are essential to keeping mines safe, since federal officials alone don’t have all the resources and legal powers necessary to adequately monitor all the nation’s mines.


If anything, federal policing of the coal industry will probably be scaled back under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been rapidly peeling back all manner of regulations on businesses, including coal companies. Trump’s new commerce secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, owned the Sago mine in West Virginia in 2006 when an explosion there cost the lives of 12 miners."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coal-country-republicans-state-mine-inspections_us_58c85cade4b022994fa2eeca?xdu59we7862p22o6r&

[lpbk2713]

1. The Trump Regime will gut all regulatory agencies.

And unfortunately it will take a lot of lost lives for them to reconsider their actions.

[PsychoBabble]

2. War on coal? China sez, "Nyet!"

Trump promised things (JOBS) he cannot control ... the MARKET for coal. Even the Chinese have figured this out. US regulations (MORE pollution etc) are moving backwards, while Chinese are shooting for zero emissions energy. Yep ... USA headed in wrong direction. Politicing and head-in-the-sand ideology is NOT going to change reality.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coal-exports-fall_us_58c993d9e4b0be71dcf104b1

Nowhere are those changes more pivotal than China, the world’s biggest polluter. Years of burning stupendous amounts of coal have shrouded its cities in thick veils of smog, and the country has dramatically scaled back its coal use since consumption peaked in 2013. Chinese demand for coal fell by about 3 percent in 2014, and dropped another 4 percent to 5 percent throughout 2015, according to the Sightline Institute, a think tank. By 2016, coal consumption dipped by 4.7 percent year over year, and the share of the country’s energy mix fell by 2 percent to 62 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported.

Steel production, the primary driver of China’s import craze, also continues to slump. A subsidiary of China National Coal Group, the third-largest coal mining company in the world, recently announced plans to lay off 4,000 workers by the end of the year.

That’s a major problem for the coal industry. As U.S. coal producers lost domestic market share to natural gas, which emits roughly half as many the greenhouse gases, they bet big on the continued growth of Chinese consumption. But, in January, China canceled 103 new coal-fired power stations ― worth 120 gigawatts of capacity ― as part of its shift toward zero-emissions energy. The country plans to spend at least $380 billion on renewables by 2020.

The U.S. coal industry basically imploded as Chinese demand slipped. Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Walter Energy have all filed for bankruptcy over the past two years. (Peabody Coal is nearing a plan to pull itself out of bankruptcy.) The number of people who work in coal has tanked, too. In 1985, the industry employed 177,000 people. At the end of 2008, that number fell to 86,000. It was at 56,000 by last year.

[LonePirate]

3. They must want to be shafted given their massive support for Repubs at all levels of gov't.

I long ago exhausted my sympathy for moronic voters like them. They deserve whatever nightmares their elected officials inflict upon them.

[Angry Dragon]

4. I really like your new gif at the bottom

Trump cares nothing about workers unless they have billions of dollars

[Drahthaardogs]

5. You Get What You Voted For!

You knew he was a serpent when you picked him up. Enjoy!

[doc03]

6. They voted for Republicans because of Obama's "War on Coal"

to get a "War on Coal Miners".