Lisa Benson for June 04, 2014

Working in a coal mine is such great work, they sing songs about it…Coal is losing to natural gas because of economics, not regulations. Even if we tried to push coal burning for energy, modern automation means it’s never going to bring back the employment it once provided.I prefer to look to the future. Lisa Benson wants to bring back the past.

Coal miners get black lung..At the EPA intelligence gets sucked into a black hole.

Now that Liberals can’t show any negligable effect on climate with the proposed job killing coal taxes/regulations (and our air quality levels continue to improve), they are all parroting “Coal is losing to natural gas because of economics, not regulations.” Once they have crippled or killed the coal industry they will go back to trashing Natural Gas and the Koch Brothers.

True that! Idiocracy is here!

Harley, don’t forget that Obama believes the the other party is the “enemy”, being the great uniter that he is.

Awesome! I just read an article on Russians who troll comments sections pretending to be Americans but having a specific agenda. Two minutes later I found one here!Busted, Harleyquinn!!http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/new-leaked-documents-show-russian-trolls-targeting-obama-har

Selfish jerks insisting on the right to breathe and drink water! What about the rights of coal miners to face death and disease for inadequate pay for the profit of mine owners? Think of the miners! Why, they’d have to get another job! Don’t think of the owners behind the curtain, though. Pay no attention.

When the administration cares more about social engineering than the nation, this is what we get.

Remember the fate of the Buggy Whip workers!

Coal is a finite resource.Over one hundred coal mines have closed over the last one hundred years.Harvesting and burning coal is, itself, a war on coal.In addition to the damage done to the air by burning coal, to water by coal sludge leaking into ground water or into rivers, and to the landscape where mountains are stripmined into parking lots in order to harvest coal, there are proven health risks to children, born and unborn, who live down wind and down stream from coal plants.West Virginia is a beautiful state and with forward thinking land management and educated planning, it could convert all of the coal jobs into less dangerous technologies/industries. Coal is doomed.Whether from becoming an archaic form of energy creation, or from being mined to extinction, coal is going to be gone if we continue to use it as we do. If you drive down I-664 in Virginia, at the point where the interstate comes to the Hampton Bay, there is a coal loading terminal. It’s huge with ships waiting in line to take the coal overseas. Tens of thousands of gallons of water are sprayed on the coal in order to limit the amount of coal ash that the wind carries to nearby neighborhoods where houses are dusted by fine black particles of coal dust. Right next to the coal yard is the James River and Hampton Bay, rich fishing and crabbing grounds. If rains are too heavy, or a hurricane hits, coal dust and sludge get carried into the river, and from there, into the food chain. Thousands of rail cars come down from Richmond, Va. to the coal yard and if you walk along the tracks, you can see black dust on the granite stone, black dust that gets washed into the ditches and from the ditches to the river.Coal has been a great tool to get mankind to this point in history. Like wood, charcoal, oil, natural gas, and uranium, hydro electric, wind, and solar,coal has had an important role in our society; but like wood and charcoal, it is time to lean more heavily on more modern and more renewable sources of energy. Failing to do so will simply make the coal vanish from earth that much faster.Respectfully,C.

The only kind of science the EPA does is science fiction.

Profits from the sale of coal, in the U.S. and all our exports of a large portion of western coal, as well as natural gas, are safe and assured for many years to come, period.

In those years, making coal slightly safer to use, and conserving energy, same for gas, is just smart, and actually INCREASES the job market in sources other than health care to take care of those damaged by profligate use.

Back east on that mountain top removal, that has also removed towns, jobs, fisheries, and water sources, you’ve got a real job creator, well, anywhere other than in regions that use this far less labor intensive, or environmentally sane, method.

“Logic is a pretty basket of flowers; that smell bad.”Spock in “I, Mudd”Coal makes money because it can’t be outsourced, though it can be sold to companies where jobs outside of the coal industry have been outsourced.Perhaps in ten years, as part of another round of free trade agreements and the desire of American coal miners to be able to work in safely operated mines, they’ll start importing miners from other countries where they work for a tenth of an American miner.You focus on the economics and totally disregard any of the risks or damages and you seem even unwilling to develop new technologies until the coal is definitely about to be gone.Your view is shortsighted and egocentric. Debt is an illusion, it can be nationalized in an emergency. As long as we can grow enough food to help the world, we have power greater than anything oil can give, and food is a renewable resource. Therefore, protecting water, air, and land makes sense. We need comments and ideas that make sense in order to have a better country. Sarcasm will not change a tire, or make a new one to replace a damaged one.

Harley, animals, plants and Man must adapt to changes on this earth, or die out. In Man’s society, businesses must also adapt, or disappear. Business may try to stem the inevitable by influencing government, but only so far.

Years ago, the owners of the tobacco companies, sensing what was coming, have invested their monies in other ventures and will not be caught totally unawares if smokers really do quit! (Although they have increased their exports!)

You own some stock in Exxon-Mobil, don’t you?

The point is that if coal is losing ground why even worry about it except that your idol is going after the industry. Now you tout Oil and Natural Gas, which you have been bashing for years (because “The One” is going after coal) along with fracking and the Koch Bros.-The point, that you missed again, is that you are fickle and will be bashing Natural Gas again soon enough when your talking points change again.-As far as energy goes, we need an all of the above strategy but the left is against Oil, NG, Nuclear, & Coal and want to barrel full steam ahead with wind and solar which have their own downsides and can’t sustain our economy or way of life now or anytime in the near future.-Bio-fuels were supposed to be the answer, but they are just a bust that makes a bigger carbon footprint than oil and are less efficient (they also harm the food supply in many different ways). Wind and Solar have just as many problems that need to be worked out, and seaweed and all those other things that Obama wants to give money to cronies for are not ready for prime time or not even viable.

“Believe it or not, the US will survive. Probably by becoming a world leader in alternative fuels.”..Under the current administration, the US is becoming a world follower.

“So your a nuke man. Good on you.”Yes, it’s true your honor. I did eat a microwave burrito for breakfast.