The Spectacle Blog
Coal Workers Are Heroes
The coal mining tragedy in West Virginia shows that we should celebrate and appreciate the people who take on this difficult work as much as we do soldiers, police officers and firefighters (and there are others).
The coal mining tragedy in West Virginia shows that we should celebrate and appreciate the people who take on this difficult work as much as we do soldiers, police officers and firefighters (or others). It is because of their sacrifice that we enjoy the blessings of low-cost energy, which increases our quality and length of life. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Iain Murray spoke to this, from his heart, earlier this week:
So whenever tragedy strikes a mining town as it does and as it has since the beginning of the industry, it’s important to keep in mind that the people of coal country are not villains. Cynical exploitation of a disaster by anti-mining activists is no help to mining communities.
By opposing mountaintop removal and the operation of private property rights that are the workable solution to the pollution problem, they have helped ensure that coal miners must operate underground, in conditions of great risk, rather than outdoors.
The hazards and pollutants (not CO2) from coal are real, but the evidence shows the benefits we draw from access to affordable energy far outweigh the costs. No other so-called “green” energy source has shown itself to be as efficient or dependable. Technological advancement has allowed us the opportunity to access this resource more safely and effectively than ever. But once again, environmental extremism takes sides against humanity and in favor of the dirt and vegetation they worship.
View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
Related Blog Posts
More Blog Posts by Paul Chesser
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/04/10/coal-workers-are-heroes
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Ned| 4.10.10 @ 9:48AM
Here is a letter to the editor I wrote after our community suffered a mining disaster a few years back:
Editor, August 30, 2007
In the production of coal men do battle with nature every day. This fight allows the rest of us to enjoy a quality of life never before achieved by mankind. Accordingly the men owning and working in the mines have to reach a level of professionalism not required of many vocations. Although the daily work can become routine a miner is always aware everything can change in an instant.
In mining decisions are made constantly, which if made incorrectly, can result in injury and loss of life. It is good and intelligent people who shoulder this responsibility and live with it daily. Some times it can go bad, as we have recently seen. I am sure our miners will look at everything that has happened and learn from it. Others are also looking at what has happened. Hopefully they will not begin their inquiry with the assumption, as some have done, that negligence or greed is the cause.
It has been said the mountain embracing the Crandall Canyon Mine is evil. I personally do not believe so. I think it is a creation of God simply acting in nature’s sometimes unforgiving manner. Yet if through some mechanism it became evil, there is no doubt, in my mind, that it remains so. The bodies of the men entombed in the mountain, the lives given, bodies broken, and worked performed in the rescue attempt, the love of all their families, and the faith of the community have certainly purged the evil from the mountain. So again, the soil, rock, water, and coal of that mountain, are as pure as the day God created them.
betwe| 4.10.10 @ 12:11PM
And our Marxist-Mooslim in Chief wants to ban coal, oil and natural gas, of which we have large quantities of all three for his academic-utopian dreams of windmills and solar panels.
De-elect Barry Soetoro ASAP. He is purposefully pulling our country down to the level of his turd world, Islamic-African brethren.
Mike| 4.10.10 @ 12:30PM
betwe,
You're lack of information is exceeded only by your stupidity.
betwe| 4.10.10 @ 1:18PM
For example, where is my information incorrect?
Fact #1 - Obama bin Lyin did say on the record (look it up) that he wants to put the coal industry out of business. Fact #2 - the USA has HUGE quantities of natural gas, coal and somewhat less of crude oil. Why are we not utilizing these sources of energy? Because of the collectivist ideology and fake "industry" of global warming? Fact #3 - Barry was a mooooslim, his father was a mooooslim, his step-father was a mooooslim. Fact #4 - Barry has a long association and affinity for Marxism/socialism/communism. Do I really need to educate you more about his family, friends, associates and now his wealth redistribution policies?
I have chores to do outdoors, not debate the willfully blind and ignorant.
Mike| 4.10.10 @ 12:12PM
Why isn't Don Blankenship in jail?
Oldefarte| 4.10.10 @ 12:56PM
Beyond being heroes, they are American taxpayers, and it is a humiliating disgrace that President Barack Obama HAS NOT physically gone to West Virginia to visit/console the grieving families. If this was another Katrina, you better believe he'd be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jamie| 4.10.10 @ 2:27PM
Why hasn't Obama gone to West Virginia?
Is it because the miners are white?
Race never stopped GWB from visiting suffering Americans. Liberals don't care about the people living through this terrible tragedy--they're just looking for someone to punish for it.
That vaunted liberal 'compassion' on display once again.
God bless the mining community of West Virginia.
John King| 4.10.10 @ 4:08PM
Mike's "You're lack of information is exceeded only by your stupidity" is a gem. But why not "you're stupidity?" His grammar is on the same level as his knowledge of science and economics.
JmsA| 4.10.10 @ 5:15PM
"Coal Workers Are Heroes" I wholeheartedly agree, and believe that if more of the country were like these good folks, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in.
Oldefarte| 4.11.10 @ 11:36AM
Coal miners, like many Americans, WORK FOR THEIR LIVING [and damned hard, too!]. They don't sit on their lazy, incompetent backsides waiting for a governmental handout; but are income earners and producers of our needed energy supplies, and GOD BLESS THEM ALL! Once again, that CHICAGO STREET HUSTLER MASQUERADING AS OUR 'COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF' should get off of his lazy backside and fly down to West Virginia to express America's sorrow and gratitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Craig Goodrich| 4.11.10 @ 11:53AM
I recently looked at official coal-mining casualty statistics (some US govt site; I forget where) in connection with yet another interminable energy argument. It turns out that mining casualties have been radically reduced over the last half-century; that's the (unsurprising) good news.
The bad news is that this reduction has almost exactly tracked the reduction in mining personnel due to increased automation. The per-miner risk really doesn't seem to have decreased significantly.
What additional progress in mine safety could we have made for only a tiny fraction of the $100 billion or so we've wasted on the AGW fraud?
Goodrich| 4.11.10 @ 9:20PM
MBT mbt