Look, I am sorry that you come from a long line of coal miners. Really. I know it’s part of your identity. But it’s over. The world is leaving it behind, and now comes word that black lung is massively on the rise (or previously under reported)
Look, I am trying really hard to avoid the buggy whip comment. But we now have much better options with increased access to natural gas. Where we do use coal, the open drag mines in TX and MT are much cheaper and safer (if not more environmentally friendly). And, of course, coal is filthy.
Stop telling me that your pride (and inaction, and inertia) means that we owe you a mining job. We (society) don’t. It’s time for the next thing, and Donald Trump can’t change that and I don’t want to.
Ever see the solidified Evil from Time Bandits? It looks like coal and it’s pure Evil; they’d love it, it’s a combination of their two favorite things. And symbolically perfect.
Isn’t coal critical to making steel?
Of course, with Trump leading the way in buying Chinese steel, I guess the U.S. steel industry won’t be ramping up production any time soon.
I believe that we DO owe jobs to all members of society. That’s a debate for another day, but I don’t want the miners without livelihoods. But we gotta meet halfway, and if coal mining in West Virginia doesn’t make sense then that’s just too bad
Interestingly, I tried to look at how much coal is needed for steel production (relative to total), annually, and the numbers I found were so all over the map I have no idea
I can’t believe I used the contraction for the possessive Its in the title. I shall now write lengthy self criticisms and prostrate myself before the village
You need a gob-ton of heat, but coal isn’t the only super-hot burning fuel. If you absolutely had to, you could do it with charcoal, or natural gas, or even an unshielded atomic pile… :eek:
I would like to see our federal taxes going to pay coal miners a good salary to get really high on sinsemilla and dance naked in the sunshine through fields of wildflowers.
Coal mining is a really shitty job, and I figure we owe them.
Hey, just in time to repeal Obamacare, too! Let’s hope Congress jumps on that right quick when they reconvene. We want to make sure Trump voters get exactly what they voted for, after all.
Hey, I’m not the one who voted for more coal jobs, less environmental protection, and no healthcare. Seems to me that these people are getting exactly what they wanted. The GOP is still the “party of personal responsibility,” right? Well, consider me a convert to their message.
Coal miners and their families voted overwhelmingly to go back into the mines, suppress their union, roll back safety regulations, and deny themselves healthcare, and against the promise of employment in cleaner industries that won’t kill them sooner, and everyone else later. In short, they committed suicide just to satisfy their bigotry against immigrants, nonwhites, nonchristians, LGBTQ persons, and independent women. I’d rather they did not have their preference, but if they get their way, let them have the whole of it.
Maybe their kids will be smarter. They are the ones who voted against unions and against EPA and against OSHA and against ACA. They want the damn guvment out of their lives. I say we give them what they asked for.