Page 3 - Mining Coal News Today

Fact, an "nbc nightly news," they reported that over the next two years, a thousand new wells could be drilled in eastern ohio, adding tens of thousand was of new jobs there. so how might we balance these concerns, environmental and the economic ones? >> well, this takes planning and thoughtful planning. my argument is natural gas could be the so-called bridge fuel to take us from fossil fuels to a completely renewable future whereas mining coal and burning coal is not forward thinking. i know m...

Energy, and even in the middle of a crisis like this, and this is a crisis, you have to remember we get our energy from somewhere. were ranting and raving for a long time about the gulf oil spill and how much damage that was doing. think about how many people die mining coal every year. you know, as long as were looking for energy were going to have to take some risks. what were seeing now is very, very bad and very frightening to me in many ways, but the argument about whether we should have nu...

Long time about the gulf oil spill and how much damage that was doing. think about how many people die mining coal every year. you know, as long as were looking for energy were going to have to take some risks. what were seeing now is very, very bad and very frightening to me in many ways, but the argument about whether we should have nuclear power is not so simple based on this one accident or any other accident. back to the question, this is an unprecedented situation. it makes -- one of the t...

It wasnt designed, obviously, to withstand the tsunami. and the problem with this argument is that you go on and on with things. what if 9/11 plane, we talked about this a lot after 2001, was flown into a nuclear reactor. what if a tsunami were to strike the pacific northwest or california with those plants and could do the same thing here. every time you make those kind of decisions, you make a choice that ends up making the reactor cost that much more money. and the people on -- and im not on ...

Actually right there with the other victims of this? >> well, no. i wouldnt think its unusual. i mean they were in the area. apparently the long wall crew was still mining coal. as they were there. and the development, long wall 22 apparently finished mining coal and they were the second crew going to come out of the mine behind the crew that was in the man trip on the way out when the explosion occurred. so, no, they were kind of in the area where they probably would have been expected. it was ...

He sees mining coal as a commodity game. its just get the stuff out of the ground as cheaply and quickly as possible. that has to change. we need to think about coal in a different way. >> factor in the lives and safety of the people doing this work in figuring out the cost of it. jeff god dell, rolling stone contributor, author of "dirty coal." thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. oklahomas republican senator tom coburn is not only proud to have blocked the extension...

Ground around coal seams. if theres a certain amount of methane gas in the air, between 5% and 15%, its very, very explosive. so if youre mining coal, its really, really, really important that you take measures to get methane gas away from what youre doing. to keep the levels of methane gas inside the mine at very, very low levels. because otherwise, naturally, methane builds up, explosions can happen very easily, and people can very easily be killed. in montcoal, virginia, this week, 25 miners ...

What is the best way to change this the most quickly? >> the best way to change this is to stop mining and burning coal. i think that is the only way you are going to eliminate mining deaths. mining in these deep underground mines especially is simply a dangerous thing to do. and certainly tougher enforcement would help during the bush administration, the federal mine safety and health administration, the agency that is in charge of overseeing mine safety was sort of notoriously gutted and weake...

Cold turkey from coal right now. we get half of our electricity from coal. no one is suggesting we stop burning coal immediately. but, you know, it is very clear in the big picture the sort of era of fossil fuels is over. we are moving away from coal in general. more importantly, this is happening in west virginia anyway. it is not because of environmentalists or something like that. it is because they have been mining coal for 200 years there. they have mined out all the good coal. the stuff th...

Cold turkey from coal right now. we get half of our electricity from coal. no one is suggesting we stop burning coal immediately. but, you know, it is very clear in the big picture the sort of era of fossil fuels is over. we are moving away from coal in general. more importantly, this is happening in west virginia anyway. it is not because of environmentalists or something like that. it is because they have been mining coal for 200 years there. they have mined out all the good coal. the stuff th...