Just found this today. Things have changed in 9 years. Fracking has greatly increased the supply of natural gas for power while state governments are trying to reduce coal burning.
Even as the amount of coal grows new jobs for miners are not being created. The number of miners has been declining since 1984. The reason is technology and machinery. When you add in mountain top removal a team of 5 or 6 guys can bring in more coal in an hour than an underground mine can bring in per day. The funny thing about coal has always been the wealth created from coal is not anywhere near where the miners who dig the coal live.
Raised in coal country, WV. It is a dying industry that was never a good industry for its workers or communities. This industry literally waged war against it's own workers simply because they wanted to be paid in actual money. They cut corners every where they can in mine safety and reclamation. People are leaving Appalachia in droves because this industry has corrupted politics, education, and the economy. Miners are too stubborn to acknowledge that maybe they should have to learn a relevant skill for theb21st century.
It sucks because people need jobs. But giving someone young a coal job nowadays just insures more workers and they're families in this same situation years from now. People who aren't equipped for the modern job market.
Readin writin route 23 explains the story of mine and many other families, Dad moved to Ohio in the early 60’s to work his life away in a steel mill, not sure which is worse.
@@katzgar Yeah, just like HVAC Techs are exposed to radiation which leads to sterilization, and mechanics develop skin cancer by the age of 50. But you, would bitch if you couldn't cool yourself off or get your Oil changed in your Prius.
It's a shame that people talks so bad about coal i was born in kentucky i luv the state it's the best in the world if everybody unplug your phone computers off and live off the grid we wouldn't need it so bad
My city has a nuclear power plant, and my university used natural gas. Coal is not necessary for electricity, and blowing up mountains for coal is certainly not the way to produce it.
From my five-greats grandfather who was one of the crew in the first Kentucky coal mine (we weren't even a state yet) to my dad's brother who owned mines, barges, rails, and other related businesses here in Western Ky., as well as many other friends and family, I have heard many stories. Two points from this video I find even more relevant today. Without objective cooperation instead of destructive fighting (as seen in many comments here), it will be much harder and more expensive to develop and implement solutions. The other was the importance of rebuilding local small businesses. It just makes sense to give a larger portion of our support to our neighbors who are more likely to share our interest than to corporations who give a portion of what they earn from us to lawyers and lobbyist to drive our neighbors out of business. In fact, I am amazed at how many are trying to say self-employed is the same as unemployed. I admire anyone who has the skills to succeed at being his or her own boss.
My Grandpap wuz from Harman, Virginia. He died round 15 year ago aged 91. He worked in the mine when they still had mules in 'air. He always tole the story about a big ole mule name of Buckballs. Paps said that they named it that cuz of its ball sack being the size of a gallon bucket. Paps said Buckballs wuz the hardest worker, man er beast, that wuz in 'air. Paps pert near got arrested one time when he seen this feller name of Stiltner a' beatin' ole Buckballs with a minin' belt. Well, Paps beat that Stiltner feller inta a inch of his life. Feller ended up in a coma. The Sheriff heard wut happened and didn't press no charges. Them's the REAL minin' stories ye won't see on the video or TV.
Vermont castings are great!. My uncle had one in his cabin in the Sierra's at 6800 ft. we had the window open in the dead of winter. if you know what I mean. GREAT STOVES!..
@J D I already suffer HG poisoning from some stupidity when I was a kid, the plastic isn't squat. I bet as heartless as you are toward people that haven't even done anything to you that you have no positive impact on anything.
@J D Then please forgive my statement about you being heartless. It's hard to hear a persons tone over txt/writing. In the area I live I'm uncaring about the environment because the sole plant that has been making nuclear fuel for the navy since 1964 has contaminated the area and water supply, back in the 90s and early 2000s they spent 8 years digging up their buried waste and couldn't produce any fuel until it was done it was so bad here. Most of the town's residence didn't really care about it. Now the town down stream they are pretty upset over it.... I've done alot worse than open burning plastics in life so I don't care much about my health, I cared more about getting rid of waste the local dump wouldn't take. I'm a mechanic so I breathe all sorts of horrible stuff like ether, acetone, and other chemicals. Once a can of brake clean busted next to me and ididn't notice it until I got really crazy lightheaded and saw it, I can't even smell the stuff anymore.... Fun times.. Not. Man don't discharge AC refrigerant, it will give you a horrible headache like no other chemical I've encountered will. I'm done burning it now and I won't take on anymore RVs to scrap and price of copper at the scrap yard is too cheap to waste time burning the insulator off the wire anymore. Anyways friend, again forgive me comment about yourself and have a good weekend.
Coals days are numbered. The coal powered plant near my house closed a few years ago, its now a solar farm. I have solar panels as do many of my neighbors. Add to this LED lights and conservation my use is way down. Its possible but industry wants to keep you on the coal tread mill. We have spent trillions on war lets help this poor areas to cut the cord from mining. It will not happen over night but you have to start somewhere. Mt. removal should not be allowed. I bet none of those benefiting from this lives near by. Kentucky can do much better as can the rest of the country and world.
That's not what's going on at all. Billionaire liberals use regulations their government buddies enact as a form of smash and grab, buying up energy stocks cheap. "These global elitists try to wrap themselves in this ‘sky-is-falling, fossil fuels are bad, climate change is real mantra,’ but the fact of the matter is they are doing that to manipulate markets,” he said." Look up Tennessee Star George Soros financial investments on fossil fuels. It won't let me post a link in the comment for some reason.
Yea.. tell that to the state when they build new roads & cut straight through a mountain instead of removing the top or contour cutting to access the coal. Also, tell that to the gold miners in Alaska & south America where they're clear cutting the forest rain forest then totally stripping the land. Think about all that next time you decide to hate on coal
@@TheRealAb216 I'm a 4th. Generation coalminer, making 6 digits a year.. the Mining Industries has been very good to me and my family, none of my family has lost our lives so far.. we have been injured an put in wheel chairs, but.. that's with any job! Its not that bad at all.. 38in" to 46in" high top.. 4-5mile back under these beautiful mountains.. once you get used to it, it's just like sitting at an Office Desk! (NoShit) You can lose your life, getting out of the bed in the morning, gotta feed your family, pay the bills, and send the kids to college some way! ~Both my kids are grown, my daughter is a Doctor and my son is a State Trooper! “Quit being a pussy and be a real daddy with a real job, sir!" 🧤🇺🇸
@@scarface9617 good for you but the truth is its a dead industry. And as far as jobs go I am a Marine veteran with 7 years under my belt so how about you take your black lung ass and stop voting for republicans that don't give a fuck about you or your family.
@@TheRealAb216 Trump by-Far better man than Obama ever dreamed he was! Is that kinda like me telling you to quit trying to kill people that you don't even know, never done anything to you! But, I love my Country and back my Military, So.. Murder as many motherfukers In Cold Blood as You Wish.. Sir! ..do you really think, they give a big fuck about you and your family! at the end of the day..The government is going to be The Government! 🧤😎🇺🇸..(🤝) I'm just glad I dont got to work or worry about it anymore, kicked back with the pinky out & the feets up!
Coal has put food in the table and clothes on the back of many many of us kentuckians and now again here in 2021 they want to take it away. God put coal in these mountains for a reason. I say use it !
I don't want to take it away from you, but I wouldn't mind if you considered following the example of the UK. Here we have centuries of coal reserves, but we've chosen to leave it where it is. Less than 10 years ago over 40% of our electricity came from burning coal, but in about 3 years 0% of our electricity will come from burning coal. You see God also gave us natural gas, and sunshine, and wind, and tides. We've decided to use those instead :-)
@@svenm7264 Obsolete. While I'm a conservative, burning coal is only going to get us deeper into climate change. We're essentially trying to put our climate back into a 400 million year state. It doesn't take much observation to see the changes in the last couple decades--starving polar bears swimming in open water hundreds of miles from land looking for ice, glaciers in hasty retreat. That's without considering coal's other drawbacks, such as mercury, fly ash, and more. There's no vendetta, and unfortunately for WV, the economy there only really has one major industry.
@@dmedlin8118 What issues are you conservative on then? Nevertheless, regardless of problems, we have no viable replacement for it, and going without electricity until one is found is not realistic Something will have to replace it, but renewables combined aren't bigger than coal and can't generate the yield of Fossil field in general
@@svenm7264 Being conservative isn't a requirement for understanding the damage of continued mass use of fossil fuels. And you're right, replacements are not enough yet to meet load requirements. However, natural gas burns a lot cleaner among the fossil fuels, and leaves no fly ash. Coal is among the dirty sources. And, its on the way out. I feel sorry for the single economic driver of coalfield states.
@@dmedlin8118 Mostly true: you don't have to be conservative to have facts or see the facts. It's just I don't think one should claim to be one if it isn't the case. I'll judge on the basis of facts, I promise. Natural gas is indeed cleaner. However, it must be noted the same environmental movement is generally hostile to natural gas as well. As to coal's dirtyness, all true. I'm all for replacing it when possible; however, it's decline in the past ten years, I contend it's regulations rather than markets at work. China's coal production isn't collapsing. Were it a decline of coal as such, shouldn't we expect to see that?
My hometown is completely surrounded by mountains that have been destroyed by mountaintop removal. It’s not worth the destruction to keep a few people employed. Underground mines are much better, but companies can’t make the huge profits from them.
Pinochet's Helicopter you remove all doubts about your ignorance when you comment. It’s better for you to loosen up your Mack hat and stop swallowing all that tobacco juice and just keep your mouth shut so people don’t know how stupid you really are.
You do realize that to put in an underground mine tho mountain top still has to come off right...but when they're done mining they have to put it all back to the way it was which is way cool
"Father won't you take me down to Newlinburg county, by the Green River where paradise lay?" " Sorry my son but you're too late in askin', Mr Peabody's coal train done hauled it away!"
These new Ultra Supercritical Coal fired plants are extremely clean and release almost 100% water vapor. Coal ash is still a problem, but that problem can also be dealt with (and new technologies to deal with it can be invented).
I'm a 4th generation coal miner. I'm a big believer in the fact that the good lord put everything on this earth to survive. Coal being one of them. If you really sit back and think about it everything on this earth serves a purpose, maybe not a direct purpose but a purpose.
A wise woman once said: “The vast forests buried in the earth at the time of the Flood, and since changed to coal, form the extensive coal fields, and yield the supplies of oil that minister to our comfort and convenience today.” Education page 129 by Ellen G. White
@@WAL_DC-6B😂 Yeah and these natural resources doesn’t create hydro carbon causes global warming climate changes either and destroying planet earth about 200 years later..
The “ Good Lord” has now shown us we can grab the power of the sun directly without having to tear up the earth and produce huge pollution from burning
I wished people would just leave us alone and let us work. People are starving around here because people away from here won’t just let us mine the way we have for years. I’d sure like to go back to hauling coal, but I lost my job because they shut it down.
I'm sorry that you lost your job, but first natural gas, and increasingly today renewable energy generation, have just made the coal industry less competitive.
@@davidkeenan5642 well if the tree huggers would just keep their poker noses in their holsters then I’d still be working everyday and living good instead of barely scraping by from day to day. I’d just like to take a moment to thank all the nosey people that doesn’t know what it’s like to live in a coal mining community that depends on the coal to live I’d really like to thank those idiots that wanted this war on coal bull💩 you’ve put a lot of hard working men and women out of work and on food stamps and helped them lose basically everything they’d worked for. 👏🏻
It's not impossible to replace the coal industry. I have a nerve sheath tumor in my spine and can't work very little income can't afford to pay power bill. I installed solar power for $8000 now run generator 2 hours a day in the winter months costs $20 a month. Next year wood gasification will mean no power bill at all.
Karl C I inherited the money so I set up my house for as few bills as possible the money is gone but I still have power. Before I got that money i went 2 years without power.
Renewable solar energy is just not theere yet. If you want this call for mroe funding to NASA.NASA has done almsot every study on renewable energy ever in american histroy bc they have themost immediate need and everyday life allfiction over it.
8/2/20 Very interesting.....would love to see more videos like this one..... I know some of the smaller towns in Ky need some kind of jobs there....why aren't Companies going there ? It is a beautiful place.....In the small towns they have shut nearly all of the mines down this is what I've been told, I have relatives there and they say there are no jobs there......
Coal in 2019 now is only around 40% of us energy production and the total amount of jobs coal mining represents is less than 50 thousand. its going to die and so will the towns that don't know how to do anything but mine coal.
@@diyr791 Obama offered them free job training in new industries but most turned it down because the right wing keeps telling them coal is coming back.
All the billions of dollars you should pay every person in Ky every month without taxes where did all those dollars go it didn’t benefit us of southeastern Kentucky
My dad, Donald C Streletzky, testified about his Fish Pond Lake advertisement for Bethlehem Steel's reclamation project in the early 1970s. I'm happy to say that his vision for the reclamation of that land came to fruition. That said, he was sickened by much of what he saw going on with surface mining in WV and Eastern KY. I cannot imagine he would be in favor of mountaintop removal.
Energy looks to be almost free in US. I noticed that your fuel costs approx 0.67€/l in 2011 while in the EU that was almost double. Double and triple insulating glass are the norm here while there are still many houses with single pane windows in US.
@6.18 the problem reveals it'self.."...born in California, Worked for apple computers..." well that sort of background aint working to well for the US as a nation.
I go into the coal country of Kentucky every now and then and some in extreme North Tennessee and just imagine how it was in the day when coal was like farming is today. I see many abandoned mines, towns,old country stores, and last but not the least the Mack dm 800 haul truck just sitting in the woods and behind the old home place, like an old beast just put out to die. I can just see the happy families going to town to eat out and buy store bought clothes, and their dad buying a new pickup truck, and a new chain saw for firewood.well you get the picture , good ole working days
2024 and I’m a coal miner in western Kentucky. First of all, YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Second of all, we have so many extreme measures for safety now that it’s damn near the safest job possible. This job took me from sleeping on the streets to owning 2 homes outright in only 2 years. This is only possible because of the millions of men who risked and lost their lives for all of us. The coal miners of the past were legendary men that not a single human on the face of this planet right now could ever hope to be half of. I’m proud to be a part of an industry that has done so many great things for so many. And not a single man or woman that lost their lives underground will ever be forgotten. Coal mining is unlike anything else. Even if you hate someone with your entire soul, you’d gladly risk your life to make sure they get to go home to their wife and kids. Because when you’re thousands of feet below everyone’s feet, all you have is each other. And that means something to all of us that go down there. We don’t get to fully enjoy the benefits of our hard work. But that’s what a true hero is, someone who does the hard work because it’s necessary not for personal gain.
Sorry but as a petrophysicist, oil and natural gas is king and its cheaper, cleaner, and more diverse usage than coal. Coal is on life support at best. Coal miners should consider cross training into oil field jobs once the price rebounds again. Its a cyclical industry.
they say that ten to twenty thousand coal mining jobs will be created by Trump by the end of the year in Kentucky and West Virginia alone. maybe forty thousand in Illinois.
Having worked in all the stages of coal production and usage this was an excellent video. I started out as a chemist with Dow in 1979. There was a coal to gas project at Ashland Oil in Kentucky. I got to be a small part of that project. It worked but was dismantled and I never got to see any production from that brainchild.
Coal is not going to be around forever. I am all for people making their money, but in no way shape or form are these coal companies backing these coal miners. Companies look out for their bottom line, employees will come and go. You read about these minors getting black lung disease, and other health issues at the age of 29, it makes you wonder...is it really worth it? I just watched a documentary on coal companies fighting their own employees from getting state income because they have black lung disease. If your going to highlight the positives, highlight the negatives.
I have nothing against using coal, in fact I use it quite often in forging. But,,, as Americans in 2013 we consumed over 11 million tonnes of coal in power production, and thats fine! He's where I think we could be a little smarter! We also produce 253 million tonnes of waist a year! See where I'm heading here... It's not what we are taking from our poor old planet, its all the fucking trash and shit we are putting into it! Incinerators... There's many uses for coal, uses that are just a smart way of consuming it and thats what our coal should be use for, in steel production and other smaller production needs. Coal consuming powerplants should be either converted into trash incinerators for the power production or new incineration plants built to consume the abundance of the disgusting amount of trash our generation needlessly produces.
This was well done, in my view. 1. The coal/oil producing areas of the US and Canada, have to understand, like it or not, that within 10 years perhaps 15 the industry is going to be passed over. The people in it can put on blinders and ignore this or put out hateful things to those that are working to save the planet, but this change is coming one way or another. You can be proactive and retrain and find another opportunity in a more sustainable industry or you can wait and lose your job. 2. Be it deficits or pollution or global warming, we as a generation have to understand on a moral level that we CANNOT continue our selfish path of leaving a huge mess for the children of today and tomorrow due our mindless demands for comforts today. This has to stop and EVERYONE has to tell politicians and whomever that from a moral point alone, we cannot continue to mortgage our children's future. 3. The laws of physics that govern our planet's processes care NOTHING about our economic or political agendas. These natural principles that mankind has been aware of for nearly 50 years are going to make much of the Earth uninhabitable and/or ruin the ability to feed ourselves. The laws of physics are utterly immutable and it is WE that must conform to them. The laws of physics will NOT change to suit our silly human based agendas no matter how loudly an irresponsible politician says otherwise. We need to use our government's resources to move in a better direction and help the people affected by such a change instead of denying everything to garner a few votes.
I think everyone is responsible and blaming coal mining for pollution is like blaming Mcdonalds for making you fat. Sadly the underhanded deals made by big business and government is where the real damage is being done and that is inexcusable. For example a power station in my area built on a mine actually imports cleaner coal from another mine to pass emission tests. At the end of the day our demand is what creates these situations and we should do our best to change.
You are right. We all have some responsibility. But some of us are more responsible for coal still not being phased out, and some of us are in a better position to change that others. Changing personal consumption behavior is good. But even if you and me and all our friends decide never to burn another piece of coal in our yards, it will not make much of a difference (not least because no individuals burn coal at home anymore). More effective is working to get your town, your state, your electric company, your pension fund, your bank, etc. out of coal. Check out the many anti-coal campaigns. I like the "gofossilfree" campaign. It has gotten some of the big investors to pledge ending support for coal.
I want to be rid of coal/oil power as much as you but you have to be realistic. coal is VERY cheap and the industry has been around for so long it is efficient. The enviromental cost is huge but its the same problem with cars and agriculture. A general problem with our modern lifestyle. Perhaps Fusion can start to solve some of these problems but it has not been proven yet.
Well as I said, lifestyle is not the biggest culprit. I mean, households are directly responsible for a tiny tiny fraction of pollution from coal, even if you factor in their electricity from coal use. And the reason coal is cheap is that it is getting too many subsidies: including the public health and environmental clean-up costs which are equally shared by us all, while the profit goes to a selected few. The well-known effective counter-measures are tougher pollution laws, carbon levies and fair pricing (different from taxes, these do not bloat government but benefit frugal consumers, encouraging more people to change, as you suggest).
@Mr Cabot Indeed, the cost to health is extreme and cannot be calculated. There is a graph somewhere showing an estimate in lives lost from coal as opposed to solar and nuclear and its staggering. A coal train has been shown to cause a significant health risk in a small local town and thats just transporting the stuff (20/day). When I say cheap I am referring to the cost of fuel/plant per megawatt vs other sources.
Take carbon out of the air and put it back in the soil. Wala! Use the new tiller machines, cover the ground, use food waste as compost, free range grass grazing cattle. This can reverse the damage from dirt to soil and will produce more microorganisms back into the ground. Less erosion=stable, less volatile weather. Carbon is a good thing. Everything is made of carbon. If you are a farmer, this is simple.YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE A BIG COMPANY do this. Farmers can do this themselves. Watch"kiss the ground" on Netflix. No, i dont work for Netflix. Raping mountains is the worst kind of erosion.
they just need to hire justin trudeau he will come in and shut it all down make it clean and he's not bothered by little things like public opinion or citizens starving to death. he is like an environmentalist but without the pesky humanity
My family never was coal miners . But I have all the respect in the world for them . To put it simply we need oil , coal , nuclear steal and manufacturing in this country . The solar and wind crowd are not based in reality . That is all I say that is polite . Trump 2024
As someone growing up in Appalachia and who is conservative, I have no problem with using coal or mining it. I DO have a problem with blowing the tops off our beautiful mountains to cheaply acquire it. If you destroy the mountains you destroy the culture. The mountains ARE our identity, and people have been way too casual about these huge conglomerates coming in and blowing up our mountains. Sure, they "reclaim" the land, but it permanently changes the landscape. It never looks or feels the same again.
When you watch this video and condem coal ,remember that same coal is powering your electric, so if your really against coal then disconnect from the power grid or just be a hypocrite
Coal mining companies stole millions from workers retirement plans and Trump's tax cut to large companies cut millions a year from black lung funding . Now us taxpayers will be paying for coal miners retirement and healthcare. Your welcome!
WRONG!!! Many U.S. coal power plants have NO scrubbers . By 2020, every Chinese coal plant will be more efficient than every US coal plant. Read and learn. www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=4410
Hey miner's it won't be long before you are replaced by robots. Today it's probably cheaper to send robots into dangerous environment than making it safe for people.
Wonder why they didn't use robots in space before sending humans into that dangerous environment?? Makes you wonder if anyone went at all or it's all BS??
We have the world's 2nd largest reserves of natural gas after Russia. Natural gas is the new fuel. It's cleaner, burns more efficient per metric tons, and its easy to extract. Thus, more and more coal plants are being shut down or converted to natural gas. The canary in the mine is what do we do with this abundant resource that we no longer need but that can be sold to developing countries and a hefty profit. The answer? Mine and sell as much as you can before other countries switch to natural gas.
What are the co2 levels in the US now versus 20yrs ago how much does our output compare to other developed countries like China India Russia I'll bet our output is nominal compared to the other 3 so why do Americans have to suffer the consiquents of climate terrorists when America is the only country that has responsibly lowered emissions and by far repaired the water pollution it's miniscule compared to other countries so I think climate change is real it changes every day but I remember we were not gonna be alive according to science in the 80s 90s even in 2000
Well said! What most people don't know that CO2 only makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere. And of that percentage, only 3% is man made. For more information see the book “Climategate” by Brian Sussman.
The industrial revolution in the USA is over. I grew up towards the end. Coal miner - got a good job in the mine, buy a new house, new truck, boat motorcycle, have a couple kids, all great. Next, laid off, on strike, no more unemployment, sell the boat first, then the motorcycle, then the truck. get called back, buy the truck back, get another boat, get another motorcycle, get laid off go on strike, unemployment runs out. Just a huge revolving cycle of never getting ahead resulting in most losing their homes in the end. Can't feed your family fishing any more. Water tables all over this area of the country are polluted with mercury levels. Sad sad sad.
More and more power plants are going to natural gas because it is cheaper to burn and far less maintenance. You ever see a boiler that burns coal? There have never been fewer coal miners in the US than at any other time. Coal production is higher than it has ever been.
Approximately 40% of power generated in the US is by coal burning power stations. Solar panels and wind turbines are simply not up to this particular task.
Down to 30% now. But I agree, coal is a necessary resource. Having a 60 - 70 day fuel supply on site is a huge benefit. You don’t get that with gas or wind or solar.
Dear Friend's ... This is just disgraceful Why Because the Powerful Elite Robber Baron's and Energy Baron's have had zero point energy for decade's but this blatantly clear has been kept from you and each time someone try's they either have a mysterious plane crash or deemed insane and there life's work quickly scooped up by people like the FBI yea sorta like what they did to Nicola Tesla , But that is a history lesson that's been kept from you .. Why well let's just say it does'n place certain agency's in the holier than thou light and shine's a light on the long standing fact that most Government agency's are strongarm for the CFR better known as the NWO Power Elite that are actually the descendants of the Robber Baron families of say the Rockefellers the Rothschilds And Carnegies and so on these are the People who rule but you never see Or read about unless it's another Building going up or University wing But they mostly rule from behind the scene they have place's like the Heritage Foundation to make certain policy stay's within the guideline they set forth like the Louise Powell Memorandum . These Greed motivated King's of debit slave's and the Owner's of The Federal Reserve Banking Cartel these very same family's gave power & Utility Company's to there kid's as Gift's which have stayed in the family for many decades so they Own the Power plant's we pay out the nose to the huge profit's go straight to the top BUT all the Down side end's upin your valley's and water shed's . Can you actually tell Me they didn't pay some Government asshole off who allowed the disgracefully destructive Mountain top removal . Well who would ever OK such a thing .. Just the fact is was allowed should tell you immediately that some lowlife scumbag was paid off . Well than you tell Me what such agency would allow this to take place .. And the study they claim tell's people hey the destructive foot print is so small is a Blatantly clear example of cherry picking of paid for endorsement .. Like asking the Petroleum cartel to produce there own proof that the pipeline is good for the wildlife ? WHAT ??? WE are nothing more to them than Debit vessels or called economic resource unit's .. We are NOT looked upon or called People which is exactly why you will NEVER EVER see these people out in public shopping Or taking any of the mass transit they want people to take ... They DO NOT EAT GMO food Or drink Water treated with Fluoride they do however live in area's far from Coal removal ..But when you look at where the Bulk of the profit end's up and where the Waste end's up it's NOT at all equal in anyway ..So maybe if the profit people where to suck up some of the waste they wouldn't be so quick to call coal Clean coal ?
Coal is a backup fuel, and that's it. We really ought to shift into nuclear energy to provide for our energy needs. All this pollution is ruining local environments, and will continue to cause problems long after the coal and coal jobs are gone. I'd also like to see wind turbines and solar farms where appropriate, those systems need people to maintain them, and that's where new work will come from.
50:37 WW2 Germany only turned coal into oil because they had lost all their oil fields and had no oil left for their military vehicles. They were prepared for this chemical process to be an inefficient net energy loss (it uses more energy to make, than what it provides).
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who else is watching this in 2020 ? well almost...
Yuuuuuup
@@waterlevelroute if you're a Nolan who are you're relatives my great grandmother was a Nolan
Smith
Just found this today. Things have changed in 9 years. Fracking has greatly increased the supply of natural gas for power while state governments are trying to reduce coal burning.
Hear, hear
Even as the amount of coal grows new jobs for miners are not being created. The number of miners has been declining since 1984. The reason is technology and machinery. When you add in mountain top removal a team of 5 or 6 guys can bring in more coal in an hour than an underground mine can bring in per day. The funny thing about coal has always been the wealth created from coal is not anywhere near where the miners who dig the coal live.
We've got so smart we machined ourself out if work
I say let the coal trains roll ,I love it
I love rolling coal.
@@PatrickBaptist especially in a DM800 Mack loaded with 35 tons of Blue Gem 👍🇺🇸
@@deborahchesser7375 I smell CUMMINS
Make Kentucky coal great again
How did I end up watching coal industry propaganda :/
You clicked it.
you trolled it
Raised in coal country, WV. It is a dying industry that was never a good industry for its workers or communities. This industry literally waged war against it's own workers simply because they wanted to be paid in actual money. They cut corners every where they can in mine safety and reclamation. People are leaving Appalachia in droves because this industry has corrupted politics, education, and the economy. Miners are too stubborn to acknowledge that maybe they should have to learn a relevant skill for theb21st century.
Thanks for the insight. All the best to you.
Agreed
@whacky pax the coal industry is still going strong in eastern ky I see coal trucks on the road all the time
It sucks because people need jobs. But giving someone young a coal job nowadays just insures more workers and they're families in this same situation years from now. People who aren't equipped for the modern job market.
Readin writin route 23 explains the story of mine and many other families, Dad moved to Ohio in the early 60’s to work his life away in a steel mill, not sure which is worse.
Great video which shows all sides in our energy conundrum. I will take coal over fracking any day though.
Wado!! Same here!
you do love your black lung
@@katzgar Real life involves tradeoffs.
@@katzgar Yeah, just like HVAC Techs are exposed to radiation which leads to sterilization, and mechanics develop skin cancer by the age of 50. But you, would bitch if you couldn't cool yourself off or get your Oil changed in your Prius.
It's a shame that people talks so bad about coal i was born in kentucky i luv the state it's the best in the world if everybody unplug your phone computers off and live off the grid we wouldn't need it so bad
Says the guy commenting on TH-cam.
The people in Kentucky are some of the best people you will ever meet
Exactly and thank you Robert.🙏✌️♥️😎
@@kentbarger5021 yep!
My city has a nuclear power plant, and my university used natural gas. Coal is not necessary for electricity, and blowing up mountains for coal is certainly not the way to produce it.
From my five-greats grandfather who was one of the crew in the first Kentucky coal mine (we weren't even a state yet) to my dad's brother who owned mines, barges, rails, and other related businesses here in Western Ky., as well as many other friends and family, I have heard many stories. Two points from this video I find even more relevant today. Without objective cooperation instead of destructive fighting (as seen in many comments here), it will be much harder and more expensive to develop and implement solutions.
The other was the importance of rebuilding local small businesses. It just makes sense to give a larger portion of our support to our neighbors who are more likely to share our interest than to corporations who give a portion of what they earn from us to lawyers and lobbyist to drive our neighbors out of business. In fact, I am amazed at how many are trying to say self-employed is the same as unemployed. I admire anyone who has the skills to succeed at being his or her own boss.
My Grandpap wuz from Harman, Virginia. He died round 15 year ago aged 91. He worked in the mine when they still had mules in 'air. He always tole the story about a big ole mule name of Buckballs. Paps said that they named it that cuz of its ball sack being the size of a gallon bucket. Paps said Buckballs wuz the hardest worker, man er beast, that wuz in 'air. Paps pert near got arrested one time when he seen this feller name of Stiltner a' beatin' ole Buckballs with a minin' belt. Well, Paps beat that Stiltner feller inta a inch of his life. Feller ended up in a coma. The Sheriff heard wut happened and didn't press no charges. Them's the REAL minin' stories ye won't see on the video or TV.
R.I.P ol Buckballs
now only 30 percent of US electricity is sourced from coal....down from 39 percent 3 years ago
As of 2021 average use per person down to 8 pounds from 21….energy from coal will soon be a thing of the past
Heated my house in Geneva.ohio for twenty years in a vermont castings fireplace insert .Ohio coal.$100.00 a year .
Vermont castings are great!. My uncle had one in his cabin in the Sierra's at 6800 ft. we had the window open in the dead of winter. if you know what I mean. GREAT STOVES!..
@Mr Cabot Funny how your crowd has to slander, how does coal make someone illiterate exactly? Since you thank coal for it and all....
@Mr Cabot Cry about it while I burn some plastic.
@J D I already suffer HG poisoning from some stupidity when I was a kid, the plastic isn't squat. I bet as heartless as you are toward people that haven't even done anything to you that you have no positive impact on anything.
@J D Then please forgive my statement about you being heartless. It's hard to hear a persons tone over txt/writing.
In the area I live I'm uncaring about the environment because the sole plant that has been making nuclear fuel for the navy since 1964 has contaminated the area and water supply, back in the 90s and early 2000s they spent 8 years digging up their buried waste and couldn't produce any fuel until it was done it was so bad here.
Most of the town's residence didn't really care about it. Now the town down stream they are pretty upset over it....
I've done alot worse than open burning plastics in life so I don't care much about my health, I cared more about getting rid of waste the local dump wouldn't take.
I'm a mechanic so I breathe all sorts of horrible stuff like ether, acetone, and other chemicals. Once a can of brake clean busted next to me and ididn't notice it until I got really crazy lightheaded and saw it, I can't even smell the stuff anymore.... Fun times.. Not. Man don't discharge AC refrigerant, it will give you a horrible headache like no other chemical I've encountered will.
I'm done burning it now and I won't take on anymore RVs to scrap and price of copper at the scrap yard is too cheap to waste time burning the insulator off the wire anymore. Anyways friend, again forgive me comment about yourself and have a good weekend.
Coals days are numbered. The coal powered plant near my house closed a few years ago, its now a solar farm. I have solar panels as do many of my neighbors. Add to this LED lights and conservation my use is way down. Its possible but industry wants to keep you on the coal tread mill. We have spent trillions on war lets help this poor areas to cut the cord from mining. It will not happen over night but you have to start somewhere. Mt. removal should not be allowed. I bet none of those benefiting from this lives near by. Kentucky can do much better as can the rest of the country and world.
That's not what's going on at all. Billionaire liberals use regulations their government buddies enact as a form of smash and grab, buying up energy stocks cheap.
"These global elitists try to wrap themselves in this ‘sky-is-falling, fossil fuels are bad, climate change is real mantra,’ but the fact of the matter is they are doing that to manipulate markets,” he said."
Look up Tennessee Star George Soros financial investments on fossil fuels. It won't let me post a link in the comment for some reason.
The water damage needs to be addressed!
Yea.. tell that to the state when they build new roads & cut straight through a mountain instead of removing the top or contour cutting to access the coal. Also, tell that to the gold miners in Alaska & south America where they're clear cutting the forest rain forest then totally stripping the land. Think about all that next time you decide to hate on coal
I miss the good times of feeling like a man should with a hard days work in the coal mines and supporting my family all by myself!
and an early death leaving your family to have to put the kids in the mines.
@@TheRealAb216 I'm a 4th. Generation coalminer, making 6 digits a year.. the Mining Industries has been very good to me and my family, none of my family has lost our lives so far.. we have been injured an put in wheel chairs, but.. that's with any job! Its not that bad at all.. 38in" to 46in" high top.. 4-5mile back under these beautiful mountains.. once you get used to it, it's just like sitting at an Office Desk! (NoShit)
You can lose your life, getting out of the bed in the morning, gotta feed your family, pay the bills, and send the kids to college some way!
~Both my kids are grown, my daughter is a Doctor and my son is a State Trooper!
“Quit being a pussy and be a real daddy with a real job, sir!" 🧤🇺🇸
@@scarface9617 good for you but the truth is its a dead industry. And as far as jobs go I am a Marine veteran with 7 years under my belt so how about you take your black lung ass and stop voting for republicans that don't give a fuck about you or your family.
@@TheRealAb216 Trump by-Far better man than Obama ever dreamed he was!
Is that kinda like me telling you to quit trying to kill people that you don't even know, never done anything to you! But, I love my Country and back my Military, So.. Murder as many motherfukers In Cold Blood as You Wish.. Sir! ..do you really think, they give a big fuck about you and your family! at the end of the day..The government is going to be The Government! 🧤😎🇺🇸..(🤝)
I'm just glad I dont got to work or worry about it anymore, kicked back with the pinky out & the feets up!
@@scarface9617 if you think trump is a good man you have a low bar and don't know what being a good man is.
I do thank peabody coal for a job.
Carl Horn zssx
Pp
Carl Horn I worked for Peabody also in southern Illinois ..willow lake mine
I was with Bowie and Arch coal in central Utah SUFCO And Skyline
@@Tk.utelab I gave him that nickname
Coal has put food in the table and clothes on the back of many many of us kentuckians and now again here in 2021 they want to take it away. God put coal in these mountains for a reason. I say use it !
I don't want to take it away from you, but I wouldn't mind if you considered following the example of the UK. Here we have centuries of coal reserves, but we've chosen to leave it where it is. Less than 10 years ago over 40% of our electricity came from burning coal, but in about 3 years 0% of our electricity will come from burning coal.
You see God also gave us natural gas, and sunshine, and wind, and tides. We've decided to use those instead :-)
I'd like to see an update of this...
federal and state inspectors worked very hard to make it safe for me , as I worked under ground .
Ohh yeah because the gov really cares.
I got a uncle & aunt that was federal mine inspectors for years in KY!
Well Trump's got a better plan. He's going to let those businesses regulate themselves. After all who could possibly do a better job?
@@PatrickBaptist They typically don't, but MSHA usually does a good job at ensuring a safe and effective means of handling unsafe conditions.
True coal has kept the lights on and my lungs suffer from the job that your family warm and the lights on.
COAL IS KING HERE IN EASTERN KY!! 3RD GENERATION ELECTRICIAN COAL MINER
Kentucky anthracite coal was the best i ever used .Clean no impurities.
Scott Baker 😊🙏💜💪💜👊💜🙏💯%
Way better than nuclear... Look at what they have done to Paduka.
@@PatrickBaptist Coal is far worse than nuclear!
@@williampotts3008 Kentucky doesn't have anthracite. It has bituminous. Anthracite is limited to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arkansas, and Colorado.
This is really hard to watch, as the sole industry for generations in an area is going obsolete. A beautiful area of the country too.
What's obsolete about it?
Still works, still provides about 30 percent of the electricity, and it would be more but for the vendetta of the Left.
@@svenm7264 Obsolete. While I'm a conservative, burning coal is only going to get us deeper into climate change. We're essentially trying to put our climate back into a 400 million year state. It doesn't take much observation to see the changes in the last couple decades--starving polar bears swimming in open water hundreds of miles from land looking for ice, glaciers in hasty retreat. That's without considering coal's other drawbacks, such as mercury, fly ash, and more. There's no vendetta, and unfortunately for WV, the economy there only really has one major industry.
@@dmedlin8118 What issues are you conservative on then?
Nevertheless, regardless of problems, we have no viable replacement for it, and going without electricity until one is found is not realistic
Something will have to replace it, but renewables combined aren't bigger than coal and can't generate the yield of Fossil field in general
@@svenm7264 Being conservative isn't a requirement for understanding the damage of continued mass use of fossil fuels. And you're right, replacements are not enough yet to meet load requirements. However, natural gas burns a lot cleaner among the fossil fuels, and leaves no fly ash. Coal is among the dirty sources. And, its on the way out. I feel sorry for the single economic driver of coalfield states.
@@dmedlin8118 Mostly true: you don't have to be conservative to have facts or see the facts. It's just I don't think one should claim to be one if it isn't the case. I'll judge on the basis of facts, I promise.
Natural gas is indeed cleaner. However, it must be noted the same environmental movement is generally hostile to natural gas as well.
As to coal's dirtyness, all true. I'm all for replacing it when possible; however, it's decline in the past ten years, I contend it's regulations rather than markets at work. China's coal production isn't collapsing. Were it a decline of coal as such, shouldn't we expect to see that?
all I can say its up you guys now i'm retired now.
Labor is still exploited. Labor today gets a smaller income to profit ratio.
guys please work safe , its up you .god bless you guys .
My hometown is completely surrounded by mountains that have been destroyed by mountaintop removal. It’s not worth the destruction to keep a few people employed. Underground mines are much better, but companies can’t make the huge profits from them.
Pinochet's Helicopter you remove all doubts about your ignorance when you comment. It’s better for you to loosen up your Mack hat and stop swallowing all that tobacco juice and just keep your mouth shut so people don’t know how stupid you really are.
You do realize that to put in an underground mine tho mountain top still has to come off right...but when they're done mining they have to put it all back to the way it was which is way cool
"Father won't you take me down to Newlinburg county, by the Green River where paradise lay?"
" Sorry my son but you're too late in askin', Mr Peabody's coal train done hauled it away!"
Muhlenburg County. It's in Kentucky
Gary chandler it’s muhlenberg co
It's DADDY, won't you take me BACK to newlimburg county, down by the green river, where paradise lay
These new Ultra Supercritical Coal fired plants are extremely clean and release almost 100% water vapor. Coal ash is still a problem, but that problem can also be dealt with (and new technologies to deal with it can be invented).
I'm a 4th generation coal miner. I'm a big believer in the fact that the good lord put everything on this earth to survive. Coal being one of them. If you really sit back and think about it everything on this earth serves a purpose, maybe not a direct purpose but a purpose.
A wise woman once said: “The vast forests buried in the earth at the time of the Flood, and since changed to coal, form the extensive coal fields, and yield the supplies of oil that minister to our comfort and convenience today.” Education page 129 by Ellen G. White
@@jimgurtner But aren't using the natural materials to make wind generators and solar farms the same thing?
@@WAL_DC-6B😂 Yeah and these natural resources doesn’t create hydro carbon causes global warming climate changes either and destroying planet earth about 200 years later..
The “ Good Lord” has now shown us we can grab the power of the sun directly without having to tear up the earth and produce huge pollution from burning
No not even close
I 100% SUPPORT COAL. I LOVE COAL.
Edison was Direct Current, Westinghouse/Tesla was Alternating Current
watch out, KY, Mr. Peabody's coal train is gettin up a full head of steam, and it's comin to haul you away
I'm ready to go back to mauling burg county down by the Green river where paradise Wait's lol
I wished people would just leave us alone and let us work. People are starving around here because people away from here won’t just let us mine the way we have for years. I’d sure like to go back to hauling coal, but I lost my job because they shut it down.
I'm sorry that you lost your job, but first natural gas, and increasingly today renewable energy generation, have just made the coal industry less competitive.
@@davidkeenan5642 well if the tree huggers would just keep their poker noses in their holsters then I’d still be working everyday and living good instead of barely scraping by from day to day. I’d just like to take a moment to thank all the nosey people that doesn’t know what it’s like to live in a coal mining community that depends on the coal to live I’d really like to thank those idiots that wanted this war on coal bull💩 you’ve put a lot of hard working men and women out of work and on food stamps and helped them lose basically everything they’d worked for. 👏🏻
It's not impossible to replace the coal industry. I have a nerve sheath tumor in my spine and can't work very little income can't afford to pay power bill. I installed solar power for $8000 now run generator 2 hours a day in the winter months costs $20 a month. Next year wood gasification will mean no power bill at all.
you got $8G and cant pay your power bill?
Karl C I inherited the money so I set up my house for as few bills as possible the money is gone but I still have power. Before I got that money i went 2 years without power.
Curtis Battig how much are generator repairs, fuel for the generator and solar battery replacements gonna cost?
Renewable solar energy is just not theere yet. If you want this call for mroe funding to NASA.NASA has done almsot every study on renewable energy ever in american histroy bc they have themost immediate need and everyday life allfiction over it.
8/2/20 Very interesting.....would love to see more videos like this one..... I know some of the smaller towns in Ky need some kind of jobs there....why aren't Companies going there ? It is a beautiful place.....In the small towns they have shut nearly all of the mines down this is what I've been told, I have relatives there and they say there are no jobs there......
Coal in 2019 now is only around 40% of us energy production and the total amount of jobs coal mining represents is less than 50 thousand. its going to die and so will the towns that don't know how to do anything but mine coal.
It's not that they do not know how to do anything else, there is nothing else available.
@@diyr791 Obama offered them free job training in new industries but most turned it down because the right wing keeps telling them coal is coming back.
@J D you can do the research yourself. Im not going to spoon feed you.
@J D www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/the-obama-administration-idea-to-save-coal-country-214885
All the billions of dollars you should pay every person in Ky every month without taxes where did all those dollars go it didn’t benefit us of southeastern Kentucky
My dad, Donald C Streletzky, testified about his Fish Pond Lake advertisement for Bethlehem Steel's reclamation project in the early 1970s. I'm happy to say that his vision for the reclamation of that land came to fruition. That said, he was sickened by much of what he saw going on with surface mining in WV and Eastern KY. I cannot imagine he would be in favor of mountaintop removal.
leave mother nature alone
I love how they say there's no alternative Nikola Tesla was sending electricity through the air. Free
Exactly
I hope you are joking, he had to produce the electricity, and this isnt a discussion about transmitting the energy its about making it
Thomas Karpinski That hasn’t actually been proven or replicated to date my dude.
If you decide to leave the music out and redo this documentary I would love to watch it. I had trouble hearing a lot of it
Wyoming has massive coal also
Lower sulfur content as well.
Energy looks to be almost free in US. I noticed that your fuel costs approx 0.67€/l in 2011 while in the EU that was almost double. Double and triple insulating glass are the norm here while there are still many houses with single pane windows in US.
😄
I want to know Chris Knight's opinion?
@6.18 the problem reveals it'self.."...born in California, Worked for apple computers..." well that sort of background aint working to well for the US as a nation.
Solar and wind is a bad joke .
I go into the coal country of Kentucky every now and then and some in extreme North Tennessee and just imagine how it was in the day when coal was like farming is today. I see many abandoned mines, towns,old country stores, and last but not the least the Mack dm 800 haul truck just sitting in the woods and behind the old home place, like an old beast just put out to die. I can just see the happy families going to town to eat out and buy store bought clothes, and their dad buying a new pickup truck, and a new chain saw for firewood.well you get the picture , good ole working days
2024 and I’m a coal miner in western Kentucky. First of all, YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Second of all, we have so many extreme measures for safety now that it’s damn near the safest job possible. This job took me from sleeping on the streets to owning 2 homes outright in only 2 years. This is only possible because of the millions of men who risked and lost their lives for all of us. The coal miners of the past were legendary men that not a single human on the face of this planet right now could ever hope to be half of. I’m proud to be a part of an industry that has done so many great things for so many. And not a single man or woman that lost their lives underground will ever be forgotten. Coal mining is unlike anything else. Even if you hate someone with your entire soul, you’d gladly risk your life to make sure they get to go home to their wife and kids. Because when you’re thousands of feet below everyone’s feet, all you have is each other. And that means something to all of us that go down there. We don’t get to fully enjoy the benefits of our hard work. But that’s what a true hero is, someone who does the hard work because it’s necessary not for personal gain.
Sorry but as a petrophysicist, oil and natural gas is king and its cheaper, cleaner, and more diverse usage than coal. Coal is on life support at best. Coal miners should consider cross training into oil field jobs once the price rebounds again. Its a cyclical industry.
they say that ten to twenty thousand coal mining jobs will be created by Trump by the end of the year in Kentucky and West Virginia alone. maybe forty thousand in Illinois.
Excellent! How many jobs did Trump end up creating?
Climate and co2 is a big swindel.
Who else has lived in KY and just watched Mine 9?
Having worked in all the stages of coal production and usage this was an excellent video. I started out as a chemist with Dow in 1979. There was a coal to gas project at Ashland Oil in Kentucky. I got to be a small part of that project. It worked but was dismantled and I never got to see any production from that brainchild.
Kentucky my home
Coal is not going to be around forever. I am all for people making their money, but in no way shape or form are these coal companies backing these coal miners. Companies look out for their bottom line, employees will come and go.
You read about these minors getting black lung disease, and other health issues at the age of 29, it makes you wonder...is it really worth it? I just watched a documentary on coal companies fighting their own employees from getting state income because they have black lung disease.
If your going to highlight the positives, highlight the negatives.
I have nothing against using coal, in fact I use it quite often in forging. But,,, as Americans in 2013 we consumed over 11 million tonnes of coal in power production, and thats fine! He's where I think we could be a little smarter! We also produce 253 million tonnes of waist a year! See where I'm heading here... It's not what we are taking from our poor old planet, its all the fucking trash and shit we are putting into it! Incinerators... There's many uses for coal, uses that are just a smart way of consuming it and thats what our coal should be use for, in steel production and other smaller production needs. Coal consuming powerplants should be either converted into trash incinerators for the power production or new incineration plants built to consume the abundance of the disgusting amount of trash our generation needlessly produces.
This was well done, in my view.
1. The coal/oil producing areas of the US and Canada, have to understand, like it or not, that within 10 years perhaps 15 the industry is going to be passed over. The people in it can put on blinders and ignore this or put out hateful things to those that are working to save the planet, but this change is coming one way or another. You can be proactive and retrain and find another opportunity in a more sustainable industry or you can wait and lose your job.
2. Be it deficits or pollution or global warming, we as a generation have to understand on a moral level that we CANNOT continue our selfish path of leaving a huge mess for the children of today and tomorrow due our mindless demands for comforts today. This has to stop and EVERYONE has to tell politicians and whomever that from a moral point alone, we cannot continue to mortgage our children's future.
3. The laws of physics that govern our planet's processes care NOTHING about our economic or political agendas. These natural principles that mankind has been aware of for nearly 50 years are going to make much of the Earth uninhabitable and/or ruin the ability to feed ourselves. The laws of physics are utterly immutable and it is WE that must conform to them. The laws of physics will NOT change to suit our silly human based agendas no matter how loudly an irresponsible politician says otherwise. We need to use our government's resources to move in a better direction and help the people affected by such a change instead of denying everything to garner a few votes.
I think everyone is responsible and blaming coal mining for pollution is like blaming Mcdonalds for making you fat. Sadly the underhanded deals made by big business and government is where the real damage is being done and that is inexcusable. For example a power station in my area built on a mine actually imports cleaner coal from another mine to pass emission tests. At the end of the day our demand is what creates these situations and we should do our best to change.
You are right. We all have some responsibility. But some of us are more responsible for coal still not being phased out, and some of us are in a better position to change that others. Changing personal consumption behavior is good. But even if you and me and all our friends decide never to burn another piece of coal in our yards, it will not make much of a difference (not least because no individuals burn coal at home anymore).
More effective is working to get your town, your state, your electric company, your pension fund, your bank, etc. out of coal. Check out the many anti-coal campaigns. I like the "gofossilfree" campaign. It has gotten some of the big investors to pledge ending support for coal.
I want to be rid of coal/oil power as much as you but you have to be realistic. coal is VERY cheap and the industry has been around for so long it is efficient. The enviromental cost is huge but its the same problem with cars and agriculture. A general problem with our modern lifestyle. Perhaps Fusion can start to solve some of these problems but it has not been proven yet.
Well as I said, lifestyle is not the biggest culprit. I mean, households are directly responsible for a tiny tiny fraction of pollution from coal, even if you factor in their electricity from coal use.
And the reason coal is cheap is that it is getting too many subsidies: including the public health and environmental clean-up costs which are equally shared by us all, while the profit goes to a selected few. The well-known effective counter-measures are tougher pollution laws, carbon levies and fair pricing (different from taxes, these do not bloat government but benefit frugal consumers, encouraging more people to change, as you suggest).
@Mr Cabot Indeed, the cost to health is extreme and cannot be calculated. There is a graph somewhere showing an estimate in lives lost from coal as opposed to solar and nuclear and its staggering. A coal train has been shown to cause a significant health risk in a small local town and thats just transporting the stuff (20/day). When I say cheap I am referring to the cost of fuel/plant per megawatt vs other sources.
my daddy was born 1941 in three point, ky. In Harlan County. The heart of coal country ❤
I love the coal mining industry
Take carbon out of the air and put it back in the soil. Wala! Use the new tiller machines, cover the ground, use food waste as compost, free range grass grazing cattle. This can reverse the damage from dirt to soil and will produce more microorganisms back into the ground. Less erosion=stable, less volatile weather. Carbon is a good thing. Everything is made of carbon. If you are a farmer, this is simple.YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE A BIG COMPANY do this. Farmers can do this themselves. Watch"kiss the ground" on Netflix. No, i dont work for Netflix.
Raping mountains is the worst kind of erosion.
Mountaintop removal mining should be illegal.
Poor baby...why?
they just need to hire justin trudeau he will come in and shut it all down make it clean and he's not bothered by little things like public opinion or citizens starving to death. he is like an environmentalist but without the pesky humanity
My family never was coal miners . But I have all the respect in the world for them . To put it simply we need oil , coal , nuclear steal and manufacturing in this country . The solar and wind crowd are not based in reality . That is all I say that is polite . Trump 2024
John Reeves was CEO of mid continent coal mine out 10 dollars he put 9 dollars in his pocket and 1 dollar in the company
As someone growing up in Appalachia and who is conservative, I have no problem with using coal or mining it. I DO have a problem with blowing the tops off our beautiful mountains to cheaply acquire it. If you destroy the mountains you destroy the culture. The mountains ARE our identity, and people have been way too casual about these huge conglomerates coming in and blowing up our mountains. Sure, they "reclaim" the land, but it permanently changes the landscape. It never looks or feels the same again.
Not to mention the polluted waters from those mining techniques.
This was 2011? Figures things have changed and these people should have seen it coming.
It's a massive drop in usage. Cheap natural gas, wind and solar aren't going away either.
US Dept of Energy proposed " Net Zero" clean coal plant CO2 sequestration demonstration project.
Cancelled for decades no explanation.
When you watch this video and condem coal ,remember that same coal is powering your electric, so if your really against coal then disconnect from the power grid or just be a hypocrite
I've got a large number of CO2 sequestration facilities around me. They are called trees.
I've had this in my "watch later" for two years. Biggest waste of time in my life
Step one build a large alutanater, step two chain environmentalists to it and have them push.
The problem with Coal is these no it all's sticking there noses in where it don't belong Let The Miners Work !!
chinas coal plants dont have scrubbers like the us
And let the free market rule.
Coal mining companies stole millions from workers retirement plans and Trump's tax cut to large companies cut millions a year from black lung funding . Now us taxpayers will be paying for coal miners retirement and healthcare. Your welcome!
WRONG!!! Many U.S. coal power plants have NO scrubbers . By 2020, every Chinese coal plant will be more efficient than every US coal plant. Read and learn.
www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=4410
ahhh, that's "know-it-alls" genius
At 20% extraction, Kentucky's enhanced geothermal resource is a measly 151,655 megawatts.
44:15 0 days since their last reportable accident 😂
What if you don’t report it?
Hey miner's it won't be long before you are replaced by robots. Today it's probably cheaper to send robots into dangerous environment than making it safe for people.
Curtis you fuck you wouldn't last 1 day underground that's fact
Wonder why they didn't use robots in space before sending humans into that dangerous environment?? Makes you wonder if anyone went at all or it's all BS??
Davis Christopher Robinson Deborah Wilson Jessica
It being 2023 10 years for now coal maybe a thing of the past
😂i worked at a coal mine years ago mid continent coal mine in Colorado
We have the world's 2nd largest reserves of natural gas after Russia. Natural gas is the new fuel. It's cleaner, burns more efficient per metric tons, and its easy to extract. Thus, more and more coal plants are being shut down or converted to natural gas. The canary in the mine is what do we do with this abundant resource that we no longer need but that can be sold to developing countries and a hefty profit. The answer? Mine and sell as much as you can before other countries switch to natural gas.
What are the co2 levels in the US now versus 20yrs ago how much does our output compare to other developed countries like China India Russia I'll bet our output is nominal compared to the other 3 so why do Americans have to suffer the consiquents of climate terrorists when America is the only country that has responsibly lowered emissions and by far repaired the water pollution it's miniscule compared to other countries so I think climate change is real it changes every day but I remember we were not gonna be alive according to science in the 80s 90s even in 2000
Well said! What most people don't know that CO2 only makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere. And of that percentage, only 3% is man made. For more information see the book “Climategate” by Brian Sussman.
The industrial revolution in the USA is over. I grew up towards the end. Coal miner - got a good job in the mine, buy a new house, new truck, boat motorcycle, have a couple kids, all great. Next, laid off, on strike, no more unemployment, sell the boat first, then the motorcycle, then the truck. get called back, buy the truck back, get another boat, get another motorcycle, get laid off go on strike, unemployment runs out. Just a huge revolving cycle of never getting ahead resulting in most losing their homes in the end. Can't feed your family fishing any more. Water tables all over this area of the country are polluted with mercury levels. Sad sad sad.
I’m so glad President Trump is bringing back coal. Trump 2020
More and more power plants are going to natural gas because it is cheaper to burn and far less maintenance. You ever see a boiler that burns coal? There have never been fewer coal miners in the US than at any other time. Coal production is higher than it has ever been.
As of 2024 coal is making a come back
172021 PA OH WV KY THX The MINERS !!!
Thank you for this documentary. So well done.
up to you fix it .
Anyone who talks trash or hates coal…..you can go to…
go play with al gore the booger eater
The comment section should be fun reading lol
Approximately 40% of power generated in the US is by coal burning power stations. Solar panels and wind turbines are simply not up to this particular task.
Down to 30% now. But I agree, coal is a necessary resource. Having a 60 - 70 day fuel supply on site is a huge benefit. You don’t get that with gas or wind or solar.
Power plants fueled by natural gas is another option to coal.
Amazin how many Russians this video is triggering? Or they could be Natural Gas lobbydics
Dear Friend's ... This is just disgraceful Why Because the Powerful Elite Robber Baron's and Energy Baron's have had zero point energy for decade's but this blatantly clear has been kept from you and each time someone try's they either have a mysterious plane crash or deemed insane and there life's work quickly scooped up by people like the FBI yea sorta like what they did to Nicola Tesla , But that is a history lesson that's been kept from you .. Why well let's just say it does'n place certain agency's in the holier than thou light and shine's a light on the long standing fact that most Government agency's are strongarm for the CFR better known as the NWO Power Elite that are actually the descendants of the Robber Baron families of say the Rockefellers the Rothschilds And Carnegies and so on these are the People who rule but you never see Or read about unless it's another Building going up or University wing But they mostly rule from behind the scene they have place's like the Heritage Foundation to make certain policy stay's within the guideline they set forth like the Louise Powell Memorandum . These Greed motivated King's of debit slave's and the Owner's of The Federal Reserve Banking Cartel these very same family's gave power & Utility Company's to there kid's as Gift's which have stayed in the family for many decades so they Own the Power plant's we pay out the nose to the huge profit's go straight to the top BUT all the Down side end's upin your valley's and water shed's . Can you actually tell Me they didn't pay some Government asshole off who allowed the disgracefully destructive Mountain top removal . Well who would ever OK such a thing .. Just the fact is was allowed should tell you immediately that some lowlife scumbag was paid off . Well than you tell Me what such agency would allow this to take place .. And the study they claim tell's people hey the destructive foot print is so small is a Blatantly clear example of cherry picking of paid for endorsement .. Like asking the Petroleum cartel to produce there own proof that the pipeline is good for the wildlife ? WHAT ??? WE are nothing more to them than Debit vessels or called economic resource unit's .. We are NOT looked upon or called People which is exactly why you will NEVER EVER see these people out in public shopping Or taking any of the mass transit they want people to take ... They DO NOT EAT GMO food Or drink Water treated with Fluoride they do however live in area's far from Coal removal ..But when you look at where the Bulk of the profit end's up and where the Waste end's up it's NOT at all equal in anyway ..So maybe if the profit people where to suck up some of the waste they wouldn't be so quick to call coal Clean coal ?
Coal is a backup fuel, and that's it. We really ought to shift into nuclear energy to provide for our energy needs. All this pollution is ruining local environments, and will continue to cause problems long after the coal and coal jobs are gone. I'd also like to see wind turbines and solar farms where appropriate, those systems need people to maintain them, and that's where new work will come from.
Well, I was interested until the 7:20 mark. Co2 is not a pollutant.
That's what I thought. Don't trees and greenery live off that stuff?
you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned trees.
This is probably the least biased documentary I have ever seen. It doesn't force one side or the other, but shows both. Good work!
The cost of coal. Don’t forget the livelihoods of coal workers. What are they gonna do ?
Sadly the options are either to retrain or migrate.
Love coal……getting a coal stove afakt
Big coal suppressed other sources of energy along with big oil.
Still watching in 2024
50:37 WW2 Germany only turned coal into oil because they had lost all their oil fields and had no oil left for their military vehicles. They were prepared for this chemical process to be an inefficient net energy loss (it uses more energy to make, than what it provides).