Ken Ward, Jr. reported the news yesterday over at Coal Tattoo. Patriot Coal Corp. is idling a large MTR site, resulting in 314 layoffs. Ken Ward, Jr. points out this is not just any mining location:
The first time I went there, it was called the Red Warrior Mine, named for the Cabin Creek community where it was located. That was 15 years ago, April 1994. Then-owner Arch Mineral Corp. was still assembling the dragline shovel it brought in from a mine in Illinois.
At nearly 2,300 acres, the Red Warrior permit was easily the biggest strip-mining permit ever issued by West Virginia regulators. In 1994, Arch renamed the operation the Samples Mine, after company Chairman Ronald Eugene Samples. Samples had been instrumental in Arch Coal buying the property from Lewisburg coal operator Lawson Hamilton in 1989.
[snip]
Since that first permit, the operating company Catenary Coal has received permits for more than 10,000 more acres in the area. Just about two weeks ago, WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman approved the latest permit, a 276-acre one called the "N-Extension."
As much as any mining operation in Appalachia, the Samples Mine has been at the center of the debate over mountaintop removal. In large part, that's because parts of it are visible from a public road far up Cabin Creek and from Larry Gibson's family cemetery at Kayford. Photos from Larry's place have appeared in news media around the world (including the masthead of Coal Tattoo).
This closure is all about economic conditions, not environmental ones.
While coal industry supporters would probably love to jump on the Samples closure as an example of how environmentalists or the Obama administration are hampering surface mining in the country, Patriot officials did not mention in their announcement any problems the company has had getting needed permits to continue at the site. As I mentioned, the company had just received one new permit, and no permits for Samples appear on the lists of Clean Water Act authorizations that the Obama EPA wants to look at more closely.
No matter what the reason, a mass layoff of 314 employees is troubling and will be very difficult for those laid off, their families, and the communities that rely their coal mining income.
For example, the pain of commenter Brandon at Coal Tattoo is very real:
Brandon { 08.03.09 at 6:38 pm }
Well, I am jobless now. I know this website and newspaper will spin the story saying environmentalists had nothing to do with it. I beg to differ. Each time the environmentalists come up with another mineral that's not "up to standard" in the downstream water, or a new regulation, this costs the companies money. Ken, not to long ago I mentioned that the environmentalists, including you, had a big push for selenium regulation. You guys have te DEP regulating the amount so low that the streams coming off of a mine site have to have a significant lower selenium level than our drinking water, plastic bottles or tap water. So, that is another example, enviro-extremists put fish before people. These jobs that were just lost are at least $75,000/year salaries. That is someone that didn't work a lot of overtime.
I'm sure the Sierra Club, OVEC, etc. will claim victory for this shut down, but don't doubt the fight has just begun. Now, us mountaintop removal guys have time to be like the members of these extreme environmentalist groups and can go protest, have gaterings, and so forth in support of this practice of mining. I challenge anyone to find jobs that pay $24.10 an hour to guys that are 40-60 years old without a high school diploma. Further yet, what about the guys that just graduated high school, where are they going to find a job that pays this good. Oh yea, I'm pretty sure GE or any other "green companies" can't pay this, being they don't have a plant in WV. Oh well.
So, keep it up, maybe you can get more mountaintop removal sites shut down and knock families out of their jobs that won't be replaced by "green" jobs.
I did my best to respond, but really, I don't think there's any words I could offer that would be of much help to ease his pain.
Clem Guttata { 08.03.09 at 7:24 pm }
Brandon, I am very sorry for the loss of your job. It really stinks to get laid off. No doubt that is going to be a huge adjustment for you and everyone else at the site who got notice today.
It's too late for me to offer advice about saving up money for an inevitable rainy day or anything like that. All I can say is you have been very blessed to have such a high paying job-I can't think of anywhere else in the country where jobs that pay that well are commonplace for workers without a high school diploma. (That's the reality of life in today's economy and it does indeed suck. There were more jobs in this country when Pres. Bush took office then 8 years later when he left; at least today we have a President who is making job creation a priority.)
I can't help but think the people to get angry at, though, are not environmentalists. The people to angry at are company owners and Wall Street bankers who are taking home huge bonuses even as banks and corporations continue to lose money. They are the ones grabbing a bigger and bigger slice of revenues and leaving the rest of us with crumbs.
The environmentalists I talk to are actively trying to bring good jobs to Appalachia. You are right, not all those jobs are going to pay as well as coal mining sometimes has. But, as you well know, those coal mining jobs have been disappearing for several decades (even when environmental rules were pretty much ignored). The coal mining jobs are going to go away one way or another-cleaner, safer, steadier work would at least be something.
The big question is if West Virginia is going to act in time to attract any green jobs before they all go elsewhere.
Meanwhile, I sincerely hope that you and everyone else that has been working at that site get put to work as soon as possible with remaining restoration work. That's a project that would make all of us happy.
The entire Coal Tattoo post (including Ken Ward, Jr's comment on selenium) are well worth reading. Also check out an earlier (brief) announcement with an extended discussion of reclamation obligations.
Image credit: Dennis Dimick via James Bruggers - Watchdog Earth |
