102 workers laid off

[Will E Worm]

Utah company blames Pres. Obama for 102 workers laid off

EAST CARBON, Carbon County — A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.

The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.

The layoffs are necessary because of the president's "war on coal," the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down "204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014" and for drastically reducing the market for coal.

"There is nowhere to sell our coal, and when we can, the market prices are far lower," the statement said. "Without markets, there can be no coal mines and no coal jobs."

Coal demand from U.S. power generation companies is down 17 percent this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration's most recent figures. That's due in large part to low market prices for natural gas, and has the EIA forecasting the lowest coal consumption in at least two decades by the nation's electricity industry.

Trends in power generation have also put coal-fired plants at a higher risk for retirement. In its annual Energy Outlook, the EIA reports that 49 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity will be retired in the next eight years. That represents about one-sixth of the existing coal capacity in the nation and less than 5 percent of total electricity generation in the U.S.

"Lower natural gas prices, higher coal prices, slower economic growth, and the implementation of environmental rules all play a role in the retirements," the EIA report states.

Article

We told you so! :tongue:

 

[Mayhem]

Keep telling me so. I want to hear about more and more coal industry lay offs. I want the entire industry shut down. Coal is filthy, it's a major culprit in climate change and it is poisoning our oceans and our fish.

Please stay on top of this and keep letting us know about any more coal industry lay offs and shut downs. I like to celebrate. :nanner:

 

[Will E Worm]

Climate change... :1orglaugh


America was built on and still runs on coal. America has the worlds largest supply of coal.
We can't replace coal.


Green Energy and shovel ready jobs are a lie.


We will stick with coal. You can move if you want.


Obama green jobs scheme. Basically it’s nothing more than an Obama redistribution of wealth scheme that takes money from the taxpayers and awards it to his supporters and like-minded green energy thinkers. Link

 

[StanScratch]

The workers were laid off because a lousy businessman made some remarkably shitty decisions, yet was unable to take personal responsibility for those decisions. He is the one who should be fired.

 

[E-Ann-Hilden]

Would have nothing to do with Natural Gas prices?

 

[Mayhem]

Climate change... :1orglaugh


America was built on and still runs on coal. America has the worlds largest supply of coal.
We can't replace coal.


Green Energy and shovel ready jobs are a lie.


We will stick with coal. You can move if you want.


Obama green jobs scheme. Basically it’s nothing more than an Obama redistribution of wealth scheme that takes money from the taxpayers and awards it to his supporters and like-minded green energy thinkers. Link

I don't want to replace coal. I want to leave it right where it's at.

Moving anywhere makes no difference. Coal follows you wherever you go with the levels of mercury in seafood and the air pollution that it causes. Climate change is a reality as we have amply seen this year. Climate deniers are shills for the corporations that don't care when you die or what you die of. If you're going to be a sucker, at least demand a paycheck from someone for being one.

 

[Will E Worm]

I don't want to replace coal. I want to leave it right where it's at.

Moving anywhere makes no difference. Coal follows you wherever you go with the levels of mercury in seafood and the air pollution that it causes. Climate change is a reality as we have amply seen this year. Climate deniers are shills for the corporations that don't care when you die or what you die of. If you're going to be a sucker, at least demand a paycheck from someone for being one.

There's too much money to be made. Coal is affordable and cost effective power. We will continue with coal. :clap:

Climate change is a lie, manbearpig.

 

[itcouldbeme]

Coal is God's way of storing up energy over time for our common good...

It's a gift from God, enjoy it...

 

[Rey C.]

Oh no! Not another Rey C. story...

Just hear me out and comment if you like.

When I was a little boy, my parents had a coal stove in our home. And one of my "jobs" was to go out to the building where my dad stored the coal and bring in buckets of coal to feed the stove. When I was about 10, my parents installed baseboard electric heaters in the house and replaced the coal stove (which was messy, dirty and produced lots of soot) with a wood stove - which was marginally cleaner and less messy than coal. Now my mother primarily uses electric heat, but has a kerosene Monitor and a wood stove as secondary heat. In my home I have a heat pump with an electric furnace and propane gas fireplaces as secondary heat sources. I do have a wood fireplace in the living room, but other than to impress a date with some crackling romance, it's never been used as "real" heat. The first elementary school that I attended had a coal fired furnace which fed radiators in the classrooms. The second school that I attended, after the first one was shut down after my 3rd grade year, was a newer building and had heat from an oil fired furnace in the classrooms.

I'm probably somewhat older than many of you... but I'm not that old - this was all in the 1970's, not the 1870's. So, does anyone here know of anyone who still uses coal to heat their home or business these days? :dunno: I don't. It is just a fact of human history that as technology progresses, the forms of energy that we use also progresses to something newer/better/more plentiful/cost effective. That's just the way it is. Here's a little known fact that I didn't know until I saw the amazing docudrama, The Men Who Built America: John D. Rockefeller built a massive fortune in oil. And one of his primary profit centers was kerosene. That's what people used to light and heat their homes in the mid to late 1800's. Rockefeller greatly opposed the introduction of electricity, because he knew that it would kill his kerosene business. J.P. Morgan backed Thomas Edison's plan to light homes with DC electric power. Unfortunately for him, Nikola Tesla (a former Edison employee) had a better idea with AC electric power. And in the end, Morgan ended up dropping Edison from his own company and wound up backing Tesla/Westinghouse. But no matter which form of electric power won out, kerosene was going to lose the energy war.

But here's what Rockefeller found (that I didn't realize): one of the by-products of producing kerosene is gasoline, for which there was absolutely no use at that time... it was actually dumped out on the ground. Then, along came Henry Ford about that time, with a way to mass produce internal combustion engines, and guess what?

All I'm saying is, people can hang onto whatever idea they want to hang onto. The problem is, if you hang onto it for too long, and the market passes you by, well, you're going to be screwed. Although I'll surely be dead by then, I don't believe that coal or oil will be primary energy sources in 100 years. Coal really isn't now. But as alternative energy sources are developed and they become more cost effective, I believe that more developed nations will also move away from oil. The internal combustion engine (as we know it) will become largely a relic and coal fired energy plants will be to the people 100 years from now what kerosene lanterns are to us now. The pace of technology is so much faster now than it was 100 years ago that I believe that is a relatively safe assumption to make.

And anyone who studies economic or business history should know that to point to the failures in alternative energy start-ups today is a serious folly. The exact same things happened in the late 19th and early 20th century with respect to automobiles and electricity. That's how it works: there are always failures before new technologies take hold. That's quite simply how technological progress takes place. It was true in ancient Rome (the very first aqueducts didn't work as planned) and it is still true today. Live & learn... or don't.

 

[Johan]

Coal is God's way of storing up energy over time for our common good...

It's a gift from God, enjoy it...

Coal is a gift from God, OK. Then, whaat kind of God would put flamable gases that caused lots of accident and killed numerous minors throughout the history of Coaol-mining where he puts that gift ?
Or maybe God is a little sadistic and likes to watch men die while trying to find his gift, like mices caught by mousetraps while trying to find cheese...

 

[lurkingdirk]

Oh no! Not another Rey C. story...

Just hear me out and comment if you like.

When I was a little boy, my parents had a coal stove in our home. And one of my "jobs" was to go out to the building where my dad stored the coal and bring in buckets of coal to feed the stove. When I was about 10, my parents installed baseboard electric heaters in the house and replaced the coal stove (which was messy, dirty and produced lots of soot) with a wood stove - which was marginally cleaner and less messy than coal. Now my mother primarily uses electric heat, but has a kerosene Monitor and a wood stove as secondary heat. In my home I have a heat pump with an electric furnace and propane gas fireplaces as secondary heat sources. I do have a wood fireplace in the living room, but other than to impress a date with some crackling romance, it's never been used as "real" heat. The first elementary school that I attended had a coal fired furnace which fed radiators in the classrooms. The second school that I attended, after the first one was shut down after my 3rd grade year, was a newer building and had heat from an oil fired furnace in the classrooms.

I'm probably somewhat older than many of you... but I'm not that old - this was all in the 1970's, not the 1870's. So, does anyone here know of anyone who still uses coal to heat their home or business these days? :dunno: I don't. It is just a fact of human history that as technology progresses, the forms of energy that we use also progresses to something newer/better/more plentiful/cost effective. That's just the way it is. Here's a little known fact that I didn't know until I saw the amazing docudrama, The Men Who Built America: John D. Rockefeller built a massive fortune in oil. And one of his primary profit centers was kerosene. That's what people used to light and heat their homes in the mid to late 1800's. Rockefeller greatly opposed the introduction of electricity, because he knew that it would kill his kerosene business. J.P. Morgan backed Thomas Edison's plan to light homes with DC electric power. Unfortunately for him, Nikola Tesla (a former Edison employee) had a better idea with AC electric power. And in the end, Morgan ended up dropping Edison from his own company and wound up backing Tesla/Westinghouse. But no matter which form of electric power won out, kerosene was going to lose the energy war.

But here's what Rockefeller found (that I didn't realize): one of the by-products of producing kerosene is gasoline, for which there was absolutely no use at that time... it was actually dumped out on the ground. Then, along came Henry Ford about that time, with a way to mass produce internal combustion engines, and guess what?

All I'm saying is, people can hang onto whatever idea they want to hang onto. The problem is, if you hang onto it for too long, and the market passes you by, well, you're going to be screwed. Although I'll surely be dead by then, I don't believe that coal or oil will be primary energy sources in 100 years. Coal really isn't now. But as alternative energy sources are developed and they become more cost effective, I believe that more developed nations will also move away from oil. The internal combustion engine (as we know it) will become largely a relic and coal fired energy plants will be to the people 100 years from now what kerosene lanterns are to us now. The pace of technology is so much faster now than it was 100 years ago that I believe that is a relatively safe assumption to make.

And anyone who studies economic or business history should know that to point to the failures in alternative energy start-ups today is a serious folly. The exact same things happened in the late 19th and early 20th century with respect to automobiles and electricity. That's how it works: there are always failures before new technologies take hold. That's quite simply how technological progress takes place. It was true in ancient Rome (the very first aqueducts didn't work as planned) and it is still true today. Live & learn... or don't.

I agree a lot with what you said, but it also need be said that coal technology has improved, along with all other technology. In fact, Coal burning stoves and furnaces are making a very minor comeback.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/business/27coal.html?pagewanted=all

Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful, mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes, some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.

Burning coal at home was once commonplace, of course, but the practice had been declining for decades. Coal consumption for residential use hit a low of 258,000 tons in 2006 — then started to rise. It jumped 9 percent in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration, and 10 percent more in the first eight months of 2008.

Having grown up in a home that heated exclusively with wood, and doing most of my heating with wood now, I can say that it is messy, a lot of work, and only cheap because I have a source for free wood. The people that owned my house before me averaged something like 260$ gas bills in the cold months, I average about 45$.

In all honesty, Coal is going to be around for a long time. Regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, it is worth looking for cleaner sources of energy. Think of the miners, their compromised health from being in the mines, the potential loss of life, and the defacing of the landscape. Not to mention all the gasoline/diesel that is needed to ship coal throughout the country. It's simply not as efficient as something that you can produce locally, have a smaller distribution grid (allowing safer infrastructure from things like terrorist attacks, etc.), and create local jobs - just as many as are in the coal industry.

 

[zeeblofowl_1969]

Coal is a gift from God, OK. Then, whaat kind of God would put flamable gases that caused lots of accident and killed numerous minors throughout the history of Coaol-mining where he puts that gift ?
Or maybe God is a little sadistic and likes to watch men die while trying to find his gift, like mices caught by mousetraps while trying to find cheese...

'god' kills people all the time kind of a sick freaky little god ya got there ICBM.

 

[Rey C.]

I agree a lot with what you said, but it also need be said that coal technology has improved, along with all other technology. In fact, Coal burning stoves and furnaces are making a very minor comeback.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/business/27coal.html?pagewanted=all

Ya know what's oddly funny? I live very close to "coal country". But I honestly don't know where I could even buy a load of coal these days. The coal yard where my dad used to buy coal has been shut down for probably 20 years or better. But I could drive probably 50 miles or so and pass coal trucks all day long. Weird, huh?


I agree with you that coal will be around for a long time - just like kerosene (I have a Monitor heater in my garage and it's great). I just think that coal's percentage contribution to our aggregate energy output will continue to trend downward over time.