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.
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.
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
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.
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.
@@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!
@@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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
@@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?
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.
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.
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 :-)
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
A well put together documentary, just logical well presented arguments. The coal industry is massive and it will be around for a long time yet, we can't replace it immediately and education is the key.
Why can we not replace it immediately? Lester Brown always points out that in WW2, the entire US industry was retooled in a matter of months. Certainly the threat from global warming is more severe now than the threat from Hitler was then.
There are lots of examples where industries that were outdated were abandoned. There used to be a huge industry making scythes. For example my little town here exported scythes all over the world. Should we have spent tax dollars propping it up when demand faded? Yet that is exactly what we are doing with coal. It has no future and is a total waste of money.
Replace it with what? Solar is only really viable to supplement power needs and works best when used locally ie your house or business. The US, Germany and Australia are refusing to use nuclear energy becase it is unpopular but it is the most appropriate source for replacing coal.
Good question on how to exactly get out of coal! Check the International Energy Agency's (not exactly a leftie hotbed) "4 measures to get to 2 degrees": close old coal plants, eliminate subsidies for them (and other fossil fuels) which skew the market in their favor, and increase efficiency and loss of energy in transport (='negawatts'). It does not require new technologies just some pretty straightforward measures. As for alternative energies, depending on the place and region, it can be acheived with a combination of say wind, hydro, solar and existing nuclear (though building new ones is simply bad value - that's the main reason the US doesnt build them actually- they can't get them financed). there are also tidal, wave etc. coming up, and of course 'negawatt' (efficiency), which is the most promising and also great for businesses. Word is that technical improvements in batteries would help the situation a lot, as would a (long overdue) upgrade of electric grids.
Yeah that would make a good start, another thing to consider is that coal is being mined even faster nowdays in a mad rush to sell it while it's valuable. If we stop burning it would become cheaper again allowing develping nations to benifit, But we can slowly close mines or stop allowing expansions. I think a man made shortage of coal would be quite difficult as less coal on the market would just make it valuable again. The point you made about upgrading our grid's is spot on as that is where most electricity is used not at your toaster. Bring back Tesla!
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. 👏🏻
"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!"
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.
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 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.
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......
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.
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.
@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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Hmmm here I was sitting in my fire bath which for the first I’d decided to use some coal as I had run out of enough wood. When I realised how very little I knew about coal. So what’d I do... watched UA-cam and came across this very well made documentary. I seriously had no idea how much America relied upon coal to power its electricity
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.
Things have changed some since 2011. From the Dept. for energy development in Kentucky in 2017. Kentucky, currently the fourth-largest producer, with almost 6 percent of national production in 2016, provided coal from deposits of the Central Appalachian Basin in the Eastern portion of the state and the Illinois Basin in the Western portion of the state. Coal production in Kentucky decreased by 29.9 percent in 2016 to 42.9 million tons. Peak coal production in Kentucky was reached in 1990 when the Commonwealth mined 173.3 million tons of coal, and has decreased by 75 percent since." Coal exports have increased to developing countries.
@@johnsummers5565 And fracking is making millions of gallons of drinking water unusable while simultaneously contaminating town/cities ground water. Many places in the US are living off of bottled water as they can’t use their water to drink, cook, bathe, etc. On top of that, fracking companies are going bankrupt as it’s not very profitable for them and as a result, they leave behind all these abandoned wells that are leaking dangerous amounts of methane. My grandfather ran his own home oil heat delivery business starting in 1939 and is now 3rd generation owned. The industry has fed our family for many years and I am grateful for that. I am not anti fossil fuel but it seems like we’ve resorted to the cheapest and most dangerous methods of extraction without any consideration for the consequences.
@@EyeonthePrize247 A price that is paid for the benefit of the entire nation. Every major industry has had an adverse effect on our environment. It doesn't matter if you look at wood, coal, natural gas, or nuclear. I am not going to deny the environmental impact of fracking, but we also have to weigh out the net benefits. Electric vehicles, and solar battery storage systems are heavily dependent on Lithium. Lithium mining is concentrated in Chile, Australia, China, Argentina, etc. Nuclear power has radioactive waste despite not emitting CO2. Nuclear power plants are also targets for hostile nations or enemy terror groups. Every current power source has its perks and drawbacks.
@@johnsummers5565 I hear you. While the Green Industry is certainly not without flaws, they can be a viable alternative in hydroelectric or wind power. We can’t just throw our hands in the air and say “fck it, everyone else is doing it and these other energy sources also have negative consequences.” It shows we have little disregard for future generations in my opinion… I’m childfree by choice and I feel good about that decision. Who knows what world will even be here in the next decade.
@@EyeonthePrize247 The problem is, hydro and wind energy is NOT sufficient to power the American Grid. I did the math once, and I believe it calculated that it would take three states the size of Nevada full of solar panels to sustain power for one year. Before Electric cars are introduced into the fray. The best solution is to find a way to make the existing systems cleaner. Which is absolutely possible in the Coal industry, although I doubt it'll change anything. Side note, it's your right to be childfree, but studies have shown that people who make that choice, often times have deep rooted depression and regret later in life. Not everyone, but it's likely a possibility, as it is literally, your only reason for existing. Stop being scared of what could happen, and live your life.
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
I have a feeling that the only source of truly clean, non-polluting energy is to pull it from another universe. But, how long is that universe going t let us get away with. So we are left with the idea of the energy you can use is limited to the power of your own muscles.
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
Being from Ky. I used to look up and say at least they can't mine on the top of those mountains... On yea. Until oil but oil is worse than coal that cancer causing oil smoke or fumes
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.
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.
I understand that working in the mine is hard in poeple and kills them . But I can't get behind mountain top removel at all . I am really glad that I live in a place where I can choose what I so for a living . I know a lot of the poeple love working in the coal mines . It takes one hell of a man and go down there . They have my respect. And I thank them . But if there mines are going then there has to be something that these men can do for a good living in the hills . And as a country we owe it to them to find it .
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 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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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 UA-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.
Make Kentucky coal great again
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
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'd like to see an update of this...
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
Thank you for this documentary. So well done.
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
Edison was Direct Current, Westinghouse/Tesla was Alternating Current
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.
😄
At 20% extraction, Kentucky's enhanced geothermal resource is a measly 151,655 megawatts.
Who else has lived in KY and just watched Mine 9?
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?
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.
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.
guys please work safe , its up you .god bless you guys .
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 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
True coal has kept the lights on and my lungs suffer from the job that your family warm and the lights on.
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
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!
A well put together documentary, just logical well presented arguments. The coal industry is massive and it will be around for a long time yet, we can't replace it immediately and education is the key.
Why can we not replace it immediately? Lester Brown always points out that in WW2, the entire US industry was retooled in a matter of months. Certainly the threat from global warming is more severe now than the threat from Hitler was then.
There are lots of examples where industries that were outdated were abandoned. There used to be a huge industry making scythes. For example my little town here exported scythes all over the world. Should we have spent tax dollars propping it up when demand faded? Yet that is exactly what we are doing with coal. It has no future and is a total waste of money.
Replace it with what? Solar is only really viable to supplement power needs and works best when used locally ie your house or business. The US, Germany and Australia are refusing to use nuclear energy becase it is unpopular but it is the most appropriate source for replacing coal.
Good question on how to exactly get out of coal!
Check the International Energy Agency's (not exactly a leftie hotbed)
"4 measures to get to 2 degrees": close old coal plants, eliminate subsidies for them (and other fossil fuels) which skew the market in their favor, and increase efficiency and loss of energy in transport (='negawatts').
It does not require new technologies just some pretty straightforward measures.
As for alternative energies, depending on the place and region, it can be acheived with a combination of say wind, hydro, solar and existing nuclear (though building new ones is simply bad value - that's the main reason the US doesnt build them actually- they can't get them financed). there are also tidal, wave etc. coming up, and of course 'negawatt' (efficiency), which is the most promising and also great for businesses.
Word is that technical improvements in batteries would help the situation a lot, as would a (long overdue) upgrade of electric grids.
Yeah that would make a good start, another thing to consider is that coal is being mined even faster nowdays in a mad rush to sell it while it's valuable. If we stop burning it would become cheaper again allowing develping nations to benifit, But we can slowly close mines or stop allowing expansions. I think a man made shortage of coal would be quite difficult as less coal on the market would just make it valuable again. The point you made about upgrading our grid's is spot on as that is where most electricity is used not at your toaster. Bring back Tesla!
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. 👏🏻
all I can say its up you guys now i'm retired now.
"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
Labor is still exploited. Labor today gets a smaller income to profit ratio.
How did I end up watching coal industry propaganda :/
You clicked it.
you trolled it
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.
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).
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.
Wyoming has massive coal also
Lower sulfur content as well.
+ VisCenter we work very hard ,I worked 41 years underground coal mine .
Erich Von Wachter Amen to that
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.
Thankyou for the info
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......
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.
GREAT EXCITEMENT AND CONGRATULATIONS 💞
I want to know Chris Knight's opinion?
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.
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.
Very Interesting.
@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.
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?
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.
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 love the coal mining industry
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).
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.
My childrens father worked his whole life in the coalmines..
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
I've got a large number of CO2 sequestration facilities around me. They are called trees.
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.
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.
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
the better question is what is the cost of our refusal to accept that coal is here to stay
Step one build a large alutanater, step two chain environmentalists to it and have them push.
The picture at 13:43 is Gary, WV.
Hmmm here I was sitting in my fire bath which for the first I’d decided to use some coal as I had run out of enough wood. When I realised how very little I knew about coal. So what’d I do... watched UA-cam and came across this very well made documentary. I seriously had no idea how much America relied upon coal to power its electricity
It's not just America; 4 foreign countries depend on coal as well
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.
Things have changed some since 2011. From the Dept. for energy development in Kentucky in 2017. Kentucky, currently the fourth-largest producer, with almost 6
percent of national production in 2016, provided coal from
deposits of the Central Appalachian Basin in the Eastern portion of the state and the Illinois Basin in the Western
portion of the state. Coal production in Kentucky decreased
by 29.9 percent in 2016 to 42.9 million tons. Peak coal production in Kentucky was reached in 1990 when the
Commonwealth mined 173.3 million tons of coal, and has decreased by 75 percent since." Coal exports have increased to developing countries.
The discovery of fracking, (which provides cheap and abundant natural gas,) has naturally cut into the market share of coal for power generation.
@@johnsummers5565
And fracking is making millions of gallons of drinking water unusable while simultaneously contaminating town/cities ground water. Many places in the US are living off of bottled water as they can’t use their water to drink, cook, bathe, etc. On top of that, fracking companies are going bankrupt as it’s not very profitable for them and as a result, they leave behind all these abandoned wells that are leaking dangerous amounts of methane.
My grandfather ran his own home oil heat delivery business starting in 1939 and is now 3rd generation owned. The industry has fed our family for many years and I am grateful for that. I am not anti fossil fuel but it seems like we’ve resorted to the cheapest and most dangerous methods of extraction without any consideration for the consequences.
@@EyeonthePrize247 A price that is paid for the benefit of the entire nation. Every major industry has had an adverse effect on our environment. It doesn't matter if you look at wood, coal, natural gas, or nuclear. I am not going to deny the environmental impact of fracking, but we also have to weigh out the net benefits. Electric vehicles, and solar battery storage systems are heavily dependent on Lithium. Lithium mining is concentrated in Chile, Australia, China, Argentina, etc. Nuclear power has radioactive waste despite not emitting CO2. Nuclear power plants are also targets for hostile nations or enemy terror groups. Every current power source has its perks and drawbacks.
@@johnsummers5565
I hear you. While the Green Industry is certainly not without flaws, they can be a viable alternative in hydroelectric or wind power. We can’t just throw our hands in the air and say “fck it, everyone else is doing it and these other energy sources also have negative consequences.” It shows we have little disregard for future generations in my opinion… I’m childfree by choice and I feel good about that decision. Who knows what world will even be here in the next decade.
@@EyeonthePrize247 The problem is, hydro and wind energy is NOT sufficient to power the American Grid. I did the math once, and I believe it calculated that it would take three states the size of Nevada full of solar panels to sustain power for one year. Before Electric cars are introduced into the fray.
The best solution is to find a way to make the existing systems cleaner. Which is absolutely possible in the Coal industry, although I doubt it'll change anything. Side note, it's your right to be childfree, but studies have shown that people who make that choice, often times have deep rooted depression and regret later in life. Not everyone, but it's likely a possibility, as it is literally, your only reason for existing. Stop being scared of what could happen, and live your life.
Mountaintop removal mining should be illegal.
Poor baby...why?
*sighs* after living there for 3 years, I can't even watch this whole thing.
Vesuvius Lee What do you mean? How was it when you lived there?
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
why is there music playing while people are talking????????????
I have a feeling that the only source of truly clean, non-polluting energy is to pull it from another universe. But, how long is that universe going t let us get away with. So we are left with the idea of the energy you can use is limited to the power of your own muscles.
Big coal suppressed other sources of energy along with big oil.
5:42, so much for the future and Star Trek era!!!!!
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
Being from Ky. I used to look up and say at least they can't mine on the top of those mountains... On yea. Until oil but oil is worse than coal that cancer causing oil smoke or fumes
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.
"You can't get a Man to understand when his Job depends on not understanding it"
Solar and wind is a bad joke .
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.
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.
Cbd American shawman is my favorite cbd shop. Located in middlesboro ky
Since coal pollutes more than cars, the EPA needs to take their regulations off the diesels, they are doing worse with this junk that can't last.
Patrick Baptist
Every country is still burning coal. It's sad .
@@pushpushlambert8079 I agree it's bad, but nothing like nuclear power, production, and weaponry.
@J D "Nucelar power is cleaner than coal" It's spelling "nuclear", and that is quite a ignorant claim.
up to you fix it .
US Dept of Energy proposed " Net Zero" clean coal plant CO2 sequestration demonstration project.
Cancelled for decades no explanation.
This video was made prior to the natural gas boom. Only about half the same amount of coal is used today in 2021 than in 2011 in America.
That is so sad that the people got the shaft it’s not fair my great grandpa owed 200 Acers of land that was took to leave the people of Ky in poverty
I understand that working in the mine is hard in poeple and kills them . But I can't get behind mountain top removel at all . I am really glad that I live in a place where I can choose what I so for a living . I know a lot of the poeple love working in the coal mines . It takes one hell of a man and go down there . They have my respect. And I thank them . But if there mines are going then there has to be something that these men can do for a good living in the hills . And as a country we owe it to them to find it .
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
Kentucky my home
I've had this in my "watch later" for two years. Biggest waste of time in my life
There just isn't a substitute. Solar panels? Don't kid yourself. No easy answers. No matter what you do or don't do will cause harm.
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