Coal Report 05-15-13 5m 58sec

graphic from "The Continuing Decline in Demand for Central Appalachian Coal : Market and Regulatory Influences" from Downstream Strategies; view it here: http://downstreamstrategies.com/documents/reports_publication/the-continuing-decline-in-demand-for-capp-coal.pdf

According to the Charleston Gazette, a comprehensive new report says that central Appalachian coal production will continue to decline for the foreseeable future.  The report (which you can read here), released by the West Virgnia consulting group Downstream Strategies, says that by the year 2040, our region’s coal production will have declined by 53% from 2011 levels.  And the vast bulk of this huge decline is expected to hit much sooner—by the year 2020.  Interestingly, though, the report says that coal employment will not necessarily decline at the same rate as production, and that coal jobs over this period may actually increase due to a decline in labor productivity—meaning the coal here is harder to reach and will take more people to mine.  So while overall employment figures may not lag, especially at the huge rate that production will, the report suggests that coal employment will start to become concentrated in fewer and fewer central Appalachian counties.  So the report Continue reading Coal Report for May 15, 2013

Coal Report 05-01-13 5m 58sec

the collapsed wall of the Robinson Run slurry impoundment // image from the Charleston Gazette via http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2012/12/06/slurry-safety-learning-from-the-consol-collapse/

Slurry ponds hold the liquid waste left over from the processing of coal at mining operations, but according to a new study from the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM), many of these impoundment walls may be dangerously weak.  OSM ordered this study and says it’s not yet final, but in data leaked to the Washington Post, in 2011, 73 different tests of wall density were conducted at 7 slurry pond sites across West Virginia, and of these 73 wall sections sampled, only 16 were actually found to meet proper density standards, less than 25 percent.  After this leak, OSM acknowledged “a potential issue” with unsafe slurry walls but said that no impoundment is “in imminent danger of failure.”  But mine safety engineer Jack Spadaro said “Once there’s an imminent danger, the only recourse you have is to evacuate.  The point of having these standards is not to get to that point.”   When danger does strike at slurry ponds, it can be tragic.  Just last year, a miner was killed in West Virginia when a slurry wall collapsed and sucked his bulldozer into the slurry pond, and other failures have flooded entire communities, like the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood which killed 125 people in West Virginia or the 2000 slurry spill in Martin County, Ky that Continue reading Coal Report for May 1, 2013

Coal Report 04-03-13 6m 02sec

(image from the umwa)

Several thousand protestors marched on Patriot Coal’s West Virginia headquarters in downtown Charleston this past Monday.  The Charleston Gazette reports  (here, here, & here) that the march was organized by the UMWA to protest Patriot using its bankruptcy to try to get out of paying the health and pension benefits of thousands of miners, retired miners, and their families.  Patriot says it isn’t trying to quit paying these benefits entirely, but just wants to reduce what it pays to “a level that Patriot can afford.”  The paper quoted many at the protest who depend on these benefits, though, including one retired and sick miner who said “I am afraid that if we lose our benefits, everyone else down the road will also lose them.” In the peaceful march, 16 people were arrested, including UMWA president Cecil Roberts. Also attending were WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Nick Rahall, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Trumka said Patriot “stands for everything that is wrong in America today,” He also said: “A few months ago, there were people running all over this state, proclaiming they were ‘Friends of Coal’. Well, where the hell are they today? If you want to call yourself a “Friend of Coal” then Continue reading Coal Report for April 3, 2013