ABOUT COAL MINING
"Coal miner" redirects here. For the John J. Szaton statue, see Coal Miner (statue).
Miners at the Virginia-Pocahontas Coal Company Mine in 1974 waiting to go to work on the 4 pm to midnight shift
United States
Main article: Coal mining in the United States
Further information: List of coal mines in the United States and Coal towns
Coal began being mined in the United States in the early 18th century, and commercial mining started around 1730 in Midlothian, Virginia.[134] The U.S. share of world coal production remained steady at about 20 percent from 1980 to 2005, at about 1 billion short tons per year. The United States was ranked as the second highest coal producing country in the world in 2010, and possesses the largest coal reserves in the world. In 2008 then-President George W. Bush stated that coal was the most reliable source of electricity.[135]
In 2011, U.S. president Barack Obama said that the U.S. should rely more on cleaner sources of energy that emit lower or no carbon dioxide pollution.[136] For a time, while domestic coal consumption for electric power was being displaced by natural gas, exports grew.[137] U.S. net coal exports increased ninefold from 2006 to 2012, peaked at 117 million short tons in 2012, then declined to 63 million tons in 2015. In 2015, 60% of net US exports went to Europe, 27% to Asia. US coal production increasingly comes from strip mines in the western United States, such as from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.[17][138]
Coal has come under continued price pressure from natural gas and renewable energy, which has resulted in a rapid decline of coal in the U.S. and several notable bankruptcies including Peabody Energy. On 13 April 2016 the company reported that its revenue had reduced by 17 percent as coal prices fell and that it had lost two billion dollars the previous year.[139] It then filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 13 April 2016.[139] Harvard Business Review addressed retraining coal workers for solar photovoltaic employment because of the rapid rise in U.S. solar jobs.[140] A 2016 study indicated that this was technically possible and would account for only 5% of the industrial revenue from a single year to provide coal workers with job security in the energy industry as a whole.[37]
Donald Trump pledged to bring back coal jobs during the 2016 US presidential election, and as president he announced plans to reduce environmental protection, particularly by repealing the Clean Power Plan (CPP). However, industry observers have warned that this might not lead to a boom in mining jobs.[141]
A 2019 projection by the Energy Information Administration estimated that coal production without CPP would decline over coming decades at a faster rate than indicated in the agency's 2017 projection, which had assumed the CPP was in effect.[142]
Murton colliery near Seaham, United Kingdom, in 1843
Vietnam
The Quang Yen coalfield was discovered in Vietnam in the 1880s.[143]
Vinacomin estimates coal reserves in Vietnam at 50 billion tons, concentrated in the Northeastern basin and the Red River Delta coalfield.[144]
See also
- Black lung disease – Human disease caused by long-term exposure to coal dust
- George Bretz (photographer) – American photographer
- Child labour – Exploitation of children through work
- Coal Measures – Coal-bearing geological strata
- Coal mining in Plymouth, Pennsylvania
- Coal slurry impoundment – Product of coal preparation
- Coal town – Residential towns for employed miners and their families
- Coal train – Practice of transporting cargo by rail
- Coal-mining region – Basin with coal deposits
- Glossary of coal mining terminology
- Environmental impact of the coal industry
- Environmental justice and coal mining in Appalachia – Environmental protection and equity
- Hurrying – Hauling coal from a mine to the surface
- List of books about coal mining
- Mine fire – Underground smouldering of a coal deposit
- Mining accident – Accident occurring during the process of mining minerals
- Problems in coal mining
- Recovering of heat from old coal mines – Part of environmental remediation
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