While I have no problem with cleaning up the environment and recycling, the idea of going “coal-free” is nuts. Does everybody realize how many jobs there are in the coal industries? There are office jobs, mining jobs, sales jobs, engineering jobs, geology jobs and numerous others. My dad sells firehoses to mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, so our family, though not as directly as the families of mine workers, would feel the effects of the closings of the mines.
With the unemployment rates as high as they are right now, I cannot believe that anyone would even suggest shutting down mines and going “coal-free.”
There are 601 mines in West Virginia alone, and over 4,000 people are employed by coal mines in Boone County, with the estimated wage around $62,000 a year. I think it is much more important that people afford to feed their families than having clean energy in Appalachia. Our children can’t breathe clean air if they aren’t alive to breathe it, and our country would be in sufficient trouble if we close all of the mines.
– Michelle Bradburn
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