Coal miners seek answers after paychecks bounce, mines suddenly close

https://www.wjhl.com/news/regional/...-after-paychecks-bounce-mines-suddenly-close/
Coal miners seek answers after paychecks bounce, mines suddenly close

HARLAN, Ky. (WJHL) – Hundreds of coal miners are scrambling after their employer filed for bankruptcy protection and ceased operations without warning last week.

And to make matters worse, many of the miners’ paychecks have bounced.

West Virginia-based Blackjewel LLC and its affiliate Revelation Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Monday. Court records show Blackjewel has about 1,700 employees in Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia. According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, the company had around 480 workers in Virginia in 2018.


SEE ALSO: Revelation Energy, Blackjewel file Chapter 11
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Trump promised the coal miners that he would save the coal industry. It got him a lot of votes. Skeptics had long ago warned that the coal industry is slowly dying, giving way to alternative clean energy sources. There just is no such thing as 'clean beautiful coal' as Trump had described it. Major coal companies such as Blackjewel and Revelation mines owe millions of dollars in debt to state and federal agencies.

In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell's state of course, a federal judge approved a $5 million lifeline to help Blackjewel. In the past month, there have been 3 major coal companies that have filed for protection under chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Conservatives have for decades complained about entitlement programs and 'hand-outs' as they like to describe programs like the SNAP food program, but I never hear any conservative complaining about the government handouts of billions of $ to farmers or to coal mining companies that are robbing these companies blind. Blackjewel is a good example of that. The government is going to bail that company out on one condition, that their CEO Jeff Hoops steps down. But, if it's not Jeff Hoops robbing the company blind, there's just going to be one more swamp creature to steal more.

 

I feel those people, they always seem to get screwed especially in West Virginia. They are hard industrious workers, Texas and other states in oil and natural gas are always looking for more of that. If they stay it will just keep happening as it has for generations now.

 

Coal is a dying business, no matter what anybody does. This is part of our evolution as a society. Coal was once very important in our lives, as it was a cheap and abundant source of power when there was really no other options. However, coal does have it's negatives....and they are huge. Mining it is dangerous and it is dirty for the environment.....in both it's use and it's extraction.

As a society, we do need to get off of coal. However, we need to do it smartly and not in a fashion that cause more negatives. It need to be a slow transition, not a "rip the bandage off" situation. Ripping that bandage off too quickly might take an arm with it.

 

Coal will only last as a cottage industry.

 

I was in the phone book distribution industry for over 16 years. Basically, I was a wagon maker in the automobile age.

It surely is bad timing for Trump as this was a campaign promise to save the coal industry. It'll be interesting if he addresses it or if he merely turns a blind eye to it?

 

Republicans ? Interfering with the free market economy ? Just because it's in their district ?

Color me shocked.

 

China will continue burning coal for the foreseeable future. Sell them all the US has. Better the USA get the money than some other country.

This business also will taper off, but meanwhile, America First. A person with a job is much better than a welfare recipient client whatever.

 

Coal exports are up due to the increasing use of coal worldwide.

 

Bro....you weren't even making wagons. I think it was more like this:

 

I'm sure that's a real comfort to the folks who just lost their jobs.

 

bad timing yes, but I also think that since I exports are up that its more of a survival of the fittest type situation, since I assume others in the industry are doing well, or at the very least much better than example given.

In 2018, U.S. coal exports were the highest in five years
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38774

Feel bad for the employees.

 

You appear to think one business represents all business. Such is myopia.

 

I do? How so? Nothing in my post conveyed any sort of reference to the overarching business of Coal Mining. In fact, to the average level reader, one would realize that I didn't dispute your notion, but merely focused on the fact that your information would be of little comfort to the individuals in question who are now without work in such a burgeoning industry.

 

There is still a need for steel produced in the US and steel manufacturers like U.S. steel use conventional blast furnaces fueled by coal.

Today, this article from Bloomberg explains how Trump's steel tariffs have hurt U.S. steel manufacturers.

The Trump Tariff Twist That Has Cost U.S. Steel $5.6 Billion
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ariff-twist-that-s-cost-u-s-steel-5-5-billion

[snip] Since Trump announced the tariffs 16 months ago, U.S. Steel has lost almost 70% of its market value, or $5.6 billion, and idled two American furnaces in mid-June that couldn’t be run profitably at the lowest prices since 2016.

 

So would the 1.3 million that would be put out of a job (according to the CBO) if a federally mandated $15 an hour minimum wage was implemented.

One can concentrate on one business but the industry as a whole is what determines output. Lamenting one business as a reason to attack Trump is absurdity.

 

China fulfills its demand for coal by purchasing it from regional neighbors. In 2017, its coal imports primarily came from Australia (79.9 million tons), Indonesia (35.2 million tons), Mongolia (33.5 million tons), and Russia (25.3 million tons).

Everyone has the same idea.

 

Probably a "blind eye".

Trump won't care.

Trump will just say, "Too bad about your jobs, Winning, MAGA, Vote for me in 2020" ...

...And, they will fall in line.

^Of course before he does that, Trump has to Blame it all on "Dems, Bigfoot, and the Deep State"...

 

How do you know what the person thinks? Can't you ever stick to a subject and cut the ad hominem attacks?

It doesn't make a difference if a whole industry is booming when people have lost their jobs and having your last paycheck bounce adds insult to injury.

 

Coal is the major fuel used for generating electricity worldwide. The biggest producer and consumer of coal is China. Other big producers include: United States, India, Australia, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Germany and Poland. The biggest exporters of coal are: Indonesia, Australia, Russia, United States, Colombia, South Africa and Kazakhstan.

Coal isn't here to stay, but it's burn baby burn for quite a long time yet. World consumption is down a bit in 2019 with the worldwide lagging economy. US exports of coal are down a bit.

LNG and nuclear plant exports of the USA are slowly replacing coal exports.

But the world will continue to combust and nuke. It's just too easy and makes for a luxurious life for almost everyone.

 

...

I feel like your projecting your animus towards the thread itself, onto me.

The reason people are attacking Trump on this, was due to his promise to save Coal Miners Jobs. Unless you want to get into it over whether he meant 'the industry' or 'the people' separately. Sure, the industry is surviving, and will continue to do so as it sheds labor costs in favor of automation, but that doesn't mean much to the people who work(ed) in the industry.

 

Yep.

 

More winning in the Trump massive-explosive-record setting economy!! Yeee-Haw!

 

The problem is two pronged. Much of the coal mined and exported comes from Wyoming and Montana where there are four operating coal plants that are using automation rather than underground mining. Automation in coal mining was the shift from underground coal mines in the Appalachian region to the open pit mines of the West (especially in Montana and Wyoming). Surface mining, also known as mountaintop removal mining, in which miners use controlled explosions to open mountains and mine the newly exposed coal seam, is less labor-intensive and more automated than traditional underground mining.

Between 1980 and 2015, underground mining’s share of total coal production dropped from 41–35 percent, while surface mining production increased from 59–65 percent. Coal companies in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming can extract more than 11 times as much coal per employee hour as coal companies in the Appalachian Basin.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-...k-outlook-for-trumps-promises-to-coal-miners/

 

I am not sure what you are saying.

You might be saying that the world is changing and coal miners need to adapt. And that is true, but change does not typically happen at a comfortable pace. But the reality is that there are not going to be jobs in coal country.... what ever the pace... and how ever admirable and industrious those miners might be

Or, you might be saying that there should be a government plan of some sort to ease the uncomfortably inevitable transition that this area faces. And, fwiw, the miners do not believe in government plans or government help. They just want the clock turned back to a time that is fading into the past

BTW,
Even if all regulations were removed.... there are less expensive sources of energy. Even for coal, they have less expensive coal being produced by gigantic machines mining surface coal In Wyoming.... and of course fracking gas. The fact is that we no longer need to send people into those dangerous and expensive mines. This is true no matter what politicians we elect