Coal Companies Cause Loss of Jobs, Not Environmentalists

A letter to the editor published Jan. 30, 2009, in the Charleston Gazette:

As I read the Gazette article, "Patriot Coal cutting 220 jobs," I thought to myself: Whats this? Coal miners are losing their jobs and out-of-state tree-huggers are not to blame?  No, instead its the out-of-state coal company costing them their jobs because market conditions have made it not "economically feasible."

Let these corporate giants start to lose a bit of profit and look how quickly miners are thrown under the bus.  So, why arent we seeing marches at the Capitol with children holding signs saying, "Dont lay my Daddy off for greed"? But just let someone whos worried about the health and well-being of their child try to make them follow laws to protect the environment and see how fast the state Coal Association organizes a demonstration.

Friends of Coal, Walker Machinery, the coal operators and some of our elected officials have convinced people that environmentalists are costing miners their jobs, when in reality its the coal companies themselves that are doing it. Coal operators cost miners their jobs when strip mining became more "economically feasible." There are 100,000 fewer coal jobs today than in 1950 with just as much coal being produced. So whos producing the coal?  Big machines.

James Tawney
Summersville

Walker Machinery and the coal companies can run all the commercials they like about how theyre such good stewards of the land, but it does not make it so.  Maybe they could take the money they spend on all their propaganda and keep these deep miners working until the market turns around and it once again becomes "economically feasible."