The Dirty Facts About Coal
The entire life cycle of coal is dirty and irresponsible. Our nation needs to stop building new coal-fired power plants, put an end to mountain removal mining, and reinvest in communities that have been harmed by coal. Here are some facts on the US coal cycle.
Jobs and Economy:
The process of coal extraction has become highly mechanized. Coal mining jobs in West Virginia have decreased from 126,000 in 1948 to only 15,000 in 2008.
Overall in the US, there has been a 55 percent decrease in the number of coal miners employed from 1985 to 2000, but the amount of coal mined increased by 22 percent over this same time period.
Black lung disease caused the death of 12,000 miners between 1992 and 2000.
Surface mining (which includes mountain top removal mining), accounts for only 1.2% of jobs in West Virginia and brings in just 2.6% of the state's total revenues. The counties where surface mining predominates are some of the still poorest counties in the country.
Tourism accounts for much more of West Virginia's revenue each year than the coal industry.
An estimated $67 million is lost annually in Pennsylvania from sport fishing and other tourism because the streams are too polluted from acid mine drainage.
Sources: 2002 Census Data, Sierra Club's The Dirty Truth About Coal, Union of Concerned Scientists' Coal Power in a Warming World, www.appvoices.org, www.EPA.gov, National Energy Technology Laboratory , Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Do we want the same type of impact on Ohio?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
There's another fact.
When I was living in Clearfield, each spring we had to worry about flooding because the abandoned deep mines would flood with spring thaw causing the mine seal to brake, causing the water to pour into the river.
On one of the walls of the County Jail the authorities kept a chart of flood levels.