report: "The decline of Central Appalachian coal"

[phantom power]

Authors Rory McIlmoil and Evan Hansen make the case that a host of factors — competition from other coal-producing regions, rising interest in natural gas and renewable energy, and the depletion of Central Appalachia’s best reserves — has prompted a decline in regional coal production that is unlikely to be reversed.

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/01/19/must-read-report-the-decline-of-central-appalachian-coal/

PDF of report:
http://downstreamstrategies.com/Documents/reports_publication/DownstreamStrategies-DeclineOfCentralAppalachianCoal-FINAL-1-19-10.pdf

[diane in sf]

1. The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones...

[phantom power]

3. I've been thinking about what you said...

and I'm not sure what you mean.

[HillbillyBob]

4. I grew up in WV, the mountains are beautiful, or were until the

Mining consortiums destroyed huge swaths. For very good reasons I don't live there anymore, I wish I could, but there it is.

We can also make coal obsolete doing things as individuals too, like cutting our power requirements as our house hold has done. Even in little increments.
We have cut our power use by a bunch of little strategies from turning out lights in unoccupied rooms to swapping to LEDS lights, LCD screens and tvs as the old ones die and have to be replaced, insulation, high efficiency appliances.
We even painted the roof with Kool Seal 287, lowering the summer temps in the house to the point we saved 1500$ in ac alone, we did not even run it at all last summer. Yea there were some uncomfortable warm days, but it was cooler in here after the paint than it was when we were running the ac, with the 450 500$ power bills.
I want to see a total stop to the mountain destruction, we do need to keep after EPA etc. Those mountains are our heritage my family goes back to before the French and Indian wars there. We are doing our personal best (On a tight budget) to end our own dependence or at least severely curtail our need.
I hear the other side bitchin that we cannot do without fossil fuels, well we have cut our need by so much, if we all do we cut into the power and profits of those companies instead of paying for our own demise.

[Lasher]

2. Turn my state into a wasteland forever.

Then the jobs will be gone. Thank you Don Blankenship.