Awaiting Trump's coal comeback, miners reject retraining
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2stepz_ahead
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When Mike Sylvester entered a career training center earlier this year in southwestern Pennsylvania, he found more than one hundred federally funded courses covering everything from computer programming to nursing.
He settled instead on something familiar: a coal mining course.
"I think there is a coal comeback,” said the 33-year-old son of a miner.
Despite broad consensus about coal's bleak future, a years-long effort to diversify the economy of this hard-hit region away from mining is stumbling, with Obama-era jobs retraining classes undersubscribed and future programs at risk under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget.
Trump has promised to revive coal by rolling back environmental regulations and moved to repeal Obama-era curbs on carbon emissions from power plants.
"I have a lot of faith in President Trump," Sylvester said.
But hundreds of coal-fired plants have closed in recent years, and cheap natural gas continues to erode domestic demand. The Appalachian region has lost about 33,500 mining jobs since 2011, according to the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Although there have been small gains in coal output and hiring this year, driven by foreign demand, production levels remain near lows hit in 1978.
A White House official did not respond to requests for comment on coal policy and retraining for coal workers.
What many experts call false hopes for a coal resurgence have mired economic development efforts here in a catch-22: Coal miners are resisting retraining without ready jobs from new industries, but new companies are unlikely to move here without a trained workforce. The stalled diversification push leaves some of the nation's poorest areas with no clear path to prosperity.
the rest at:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/awaiting-trumps-coal-comeback-miners-reject-retraining-110652662.html
He settled instead on something familiar: a coal mining course.
"I think there is a coal comeback,” said the 33-year-old son of a miner.
Despite broad consensus about coal's bleak future, a years-long effort to diversify the economy of this hard-hit region away from mining is stumbling, with Obama-era jobs retraining classes undersubscribed and future programs at risk under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget.
Trump has promised to revive coal by rolling back environmental regulations and moved to repeal Obama-era curbs on carbon emissions from power plants.
"I have a lot of faith in President Trump," Sylvester said.
But hundreds of coal-fired plants have closed in recent years, and cheap natural gas continues to erode domestic demand. The Appalachian region has lost about 33,500 mining jobs since 2011, according to the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Although there have been small gains in coal output and hiring this year, driven by foreign demand, production levels remain near lows hit in 1978.
A White House official did not respond to requests for comment on coal policy and retraining for coal workers.
What many experts call false hopes for a coal resurgence have mired economic development efforts here in a catch-22: Coal miners are resisting retraining without ready jobs from new industries, but new companies are unlikely to move here without a trained workforce. The stalled diversification push leaves some of the nation's poorest areas with no clear path to prosperity.
the rest at:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/awaiting-trumps-coal-comeback-miners-reject-retraining-110652662.html
Comments
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this is truly sad. grown adult ppl should not be this dumb irl.
the fact that they cant see thru his ? is truly amazing. -
this is truly sad. grown adult ppl should not be this dumb irl.
the fact that they cant see thru his ? is truly amazing.
this country is going the way it is because they want a white savior.
even if it means going back into coal mines that will ? them but they wont have health care cause the ? made them have it.
it all goes back to i rather be on a sinking ship following a white man than list to a ? on a luxury cruise liner. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »this is truly sad. grown adult ppl should not be this dumb irl.
the fact that they cant see thru his ? is truly amazing.
this country is going the way it is because they want a white savior.
even if it means going back into coal mines that will ? them but they wont have health care cause the ? made them have it.
it all goes back to i rather be on a sinking ship following a white man than list to a ? on a luxury cruise liner.
let them sink then. ? 'em
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SuperManuel wrote: »2stepz_ahead wrote: »this is truly sad. grown adult ppl should not be this dumb irl.
the fact that they cant see thru his ? is truly amazing.
this country is going the way it is because they want a white savior.
even if it means going back into coal mines that will ? them but they wont have health care cause the ? made them have it.
it all goes back to i rather be on a sinking ship following a white man than list to a ? on a luxury cruise liner.
let them sink then. ? 'em
What is funny is you have more white people willing to let other white people sink than black people. -
Lol @ thinking coal was coming back. How? In what capacity? Why? Where?
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Crazy ? . We are seeing the decline of oil, and people think coal is gonna actually come back?
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Let them honkies drown in thier own ignorance
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People that stupid deserve everything coming their way. Trash that needs to be weeded out.
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My dad from pittsburgh. They have the honkiest poor whte trash ever.
All them their parents and grandparents relied on the coal industry.
Statistics show more people have died from cancer in pittsburgh then most other cities cuz of the mining.
My aunt died from cancer as a result.
My dad sued US steel and got a settlement because he bought the land that our family had and the ground and water was infected with chemicals causing cancer -
so, poor white trash gets poorer?
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Why?
Like seriously. Why do ppl think and want coal to come back. ? is dangerous -
Lol. In the meantime they'll just remain unemployed, be addicted to heroin while they wait and leech off welfare.
All while complaining about black people being unemployed, doing drugs and leeching off welfare or about immigrants taking all the jobs. -
? is funny to me. keep the faith in trump. i hope he run ya ass in to the poor house
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My mom moved to Hazelton formerly a coal mining town. Then ghost town when coal began to brick. Now its beautiful plains mixed with abandoned mines and dominican businesses.
The locals out there are being outlapped by enterprising immigrants and walmart and amazon both bought in to the province as well. Meanwhile many locals still waiting on coal to bounce back lmao
PA working class white locals are deluded as hell. Gonna be a cold winter. -
Coal ain't even practical lol. Go be a welder or a steel worker if you committed to working dangerous blue collar jobs.
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And they say we can't let go of the past...
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Coal is not coming back nor should it. Natural gas prices are continuing to fall, the Saudi's are pumping more oil in an attempt to undercut the low natural gas prices, and renewable energy is increasing its market share every year. Coal will be a part of the U.S. energy supply going forward but it won't be anywhere near as important as it used to be.
I was a manger for CSX and it was no secret that coal was done. We had 10 divisions on the railroad and about 2 years ago they went to 9. The Huntington division that I used to work on was dismantled and broken up amongst 4 other divisions. The Huntington division was based in Huntington, WV and all we did was move coal. After losing tens of millions of dollars per year for years in the domestic coal market CSX was left with no other choice.
What people don't realize is that all of that coal that was mined in central Appalachia (Ky, WV, TN, OH and PA) was sent to China b/c it was too ? to burn in the U.S. China was getting all of their coal from Australia but the Austrailian coal mines were all flooded out by a typhoon in 2011 so China started getting all of their coal from us. We sent them so much coal that they couldn't take it all and by 2015 they forced the railroads to renegotiate the contract. Also around that time the Australian coal mines started to come back online. Domestic power companies had already started switching to cleaner and cheaper natural gas and domestic steel mills were shutting down blast furnaces throughout the nation b/c of cheaper foreign steel.
CSX started laying people off left and right. I peeped game and jumped ? before it really hit the fan. But those ignorant, uneducated, hillbilly ass cacs just sat there and let Trump lie to them. Coal will never bounce back. It's all about renewables now. China went from being the #1 importer of American coal to being the #1 producer of photovoltaic cells. They're going green.
It's 2017 and coal is done. There are multiple times more new jobs being created in green energy than in coal. ? them ignorant ass cacs. Either learn a new trade, starve to death or od on herion and ? . The writing has been on the wall. ? them ignorant ass cacs. -
Natural selection
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I bet they use to be on that Obamacare they hated too.. idiots..
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Slow train coming Lamar...
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Coal is not coming back nor should it. Natural gas prices are continuing to fall, the Saudi's are pumping more oil in an attempt to undercut the low natural gas prices, and renewable energy is increasing its market share every year. Coal will be a part of the U.S. energy supply going forward but it won't be anywhere near as important as it used to be.
I was a manger for CSX and it was no secret that coal was done. We had 10 divisions on the railroad and about 2 years ago they went to 9. The Huntington division that I used to work on was dismantled and broken up amongst 4 other divisions. The Huntington division was based in Huntington, WV and all we did was move coal. After losing tens of millions of dollars per year for years in the domestic coal market CSX was left with no other choice.
What people don't realize is that all of that coal that was mined in central Appalachia (Ky, WV, TN, OH and PA) was sent to China b/c it was too ? to burn in the U.S. China was getting all of their coal from Australia but the Austrailian coal mines were all flooded out by a typhoon in 2011 so China started getting all of their coal from us. We sent them so much coal that they couldn't take it all and by 2015 they forced the railroads to renegotiate the contract. Also around that time the Australian coal mines started to come back online. Domestic power companies had already started switching to cleaner and cheaper natural gas and domestic steel mills were shutting down blast furnaces throughout the nation b/c of cheaper foreign steel.
CSX started laying people off left and right. I peeped game and jumped ? before it really hit the fan. But those ignorant, uneducated, hillbilly ass cacs just sat there and let Trump lie to them. Coal will never bounce back. It's all about renewables now. China went from being the #1 importer of American coal to being the #1 producer of photovoltaic cells. They're going green.
It's 2017 and coal is done. There are multiple times more new jobs being created in green energy than in coal. ? them ignorant ass cacs. Either learn a new trade, starve to death or od on herion and ? . The writing has been on the wall. ? them ignorant ass cacs.
My pops worked for CSX for years. He was still working for them when he passed in 2001. Two days after he died the CSX "Crazy Eights" incident happened (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_8888_incident). Since my pops split his time working yards in Michigan and Ohio everyone that knew him said it was his spirit that took the train out for one last ride. -
? em then!
