Lies about Coal Jobs
There are those — and Gov. Joe Manchin is a cheerleader for this crowd — who would say that if you oppose the TrAIL power line that Allegheny Power wants to ram down our throats so that people in New Jersey can use more and more and more cheap electricity, then you are taking food out of the mouths of the families of coal miners. You are against coal mining jobs.
Their line of trash: Anti-TrAIL = anti-miners.
If that argument were not so pathetic, it would be outrageous.
Fact: The power plant generating the electricity that will run through the TrAIL wires will need coal to burn no matter where the TrAIL line is built.
Fact: If Allegheny and crew built the power plant within 25 or 50 miles of where the electricity is needed, that power plant would still need West Virginia coal. (Is Manchin the only person who doesn’t get that? You can be sure the coal and power companies know it.)
Fact: Demand for coal has increased and will continue to increase whether TrAIL is built in West Virginia … on the East Coast where it belongs … or whether it is ever built!
“Demand for US coal will reach a new record in 2008 despite a lagging domestic economy,” National Mining Association (NMA) President & CEO Kraig R. Naasz said upon release of the NMA’s mid-year forecast for coal demand and production. … Total demand for US coal is expected to reach 1,105 Mt in 2008, surpassing the previous record established in 2006 when total demand (domestic consumption and exports) reached 1,090 Mt of coal.” InternationalMining.com: NMA mid-year forecast projects record coal demand in 2008, May 17, 2008
“Reuters reports that a ton of eastern U.S. coal that sold for $44.75 a year ago is now selling for $85.50.” (Purchasing.com: Demand for U.S. coal from overseas markets is driving forecasted coal prices up, April 28, 2008)
Fact: West Virginia’s coal miners and their families will do very well without TrAIL. And we hope they remain safe as they perform their very dangerous jobs.
So let’s stop the nonsense that TrAIL will somehow save West Virginia’s coal industry or the people it employs.
Build the power plants near Washington and Philadelphia and wherever else Allegheny plans to sell this power.