The Collapse of Coal 

When you can get natural gas almost free why would you buy coal? Fracking is the end of coal period..

Im surprised at how good this show was. Very good thanks.

In Silesia (Poland) where I live we had ca. 400 000 miners in 1989, now we have 80 000. That's the scale of the problem.

Excellent report. This is the kind of journalist reporting that is sorely missing today.

It's now 2019. Peabody has survived bankruptcy. Right now they are doing fairly well. Are these people again now working. I would like to get an update.

These people are going to have to move to where jobs are plentiful. Coal in WV has been declining for years but the workers were fed the false promises that coal is coming back.

The same has happened in the UK, the end of coal mining communities destroyed and our government do not care

I see a lot of people on these comments blaming other folks for their problems.

I’m all for clean air. However, I’m more for jobs and people being able to eat and support themselves. Instead of shutting coal down completely why not invest more into clean coal technology. The technology is there for it. Put money into that instead of doing away with coal and jobs. When coal jobs are lost a whole lot more jobs than just coal are affected as well.

Here in Alberta. Our current government is opening up mountain coal mining. I wonder how big of bribes they took to do this.

even in the remote case the coal would increase in turnout the layoffs will continue. they won't get retired as automation just increase. automatic trucks is already in use in these settings. automatic loading is also being implemented.

One thing I respect about ilegals is that they risk everything even their lives, leave their families behind, to come to the US to work traveling hundreds or thousands of miles in the process.....and here you have these people who just cry and fell sorry for themselves and refuse to move to another city to look for jobs and instead wait for the jobs to come to them.....pitiful

I'm still working underground in Kentucky but we mine met coal

Coal has got to go. Or the advanced countries of the world have to unite and develop technology to remove the environmental impact of using coal.

Greene county has been my home for 40 years and every job I ever had was because of coal, from mining it to my current job as a mechanic at a mine equipment rebuild shop. We played on the slate dumps as kids and they made nice places to ride atvs. We hunted on mine property since they owned a lot of woods around us. It was essentially like unofficial public land. Coal is just a part of life for us. I loved mining coal underground. It's tough but fun and pays double than anything else in the area. I love where I grew up and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

Very comprehensive and informative video that everyone should see it how complicated is energy business

What about the High speed rail industry Manufacturing, Building trains. Bicycle manufacturing..., for the 🌲🇺🇸 Green Crowds. Just saying.

Even Nuclear Generating Stations are shutting down due to the competition of cheap natural gas being used to generate electricity.

This what happens when you build an entire city to be reliant on 1 singe thing for its survival

I was fascinated to learn that us Brits have been living on top of untapped Coleslaw mines,

Natural gas is whooping that ass. Should have taken the hard drilling job instead of the easy coal job. Wah wahhhh.....

Tough to watch in real time how the 4th technology revolution is creating so many opportunities at the same time it is creating so much upheaval. This was a very good reporting, wish you could do a second segment on this topic as an update and maybe this time look at the green tech displacing coal as well as the technologies that might make coal lucrative again.

Unless these ex-coal miners get training and new jobs, they're like a frog in boiling water. With one exception; they've been warned.

448 the first truck in the video... used to drive that truck.

I live near green county Pa and all the remaining mining is being done by consol energy and they also have a full fracking operation so they are set no matter what

Wyoming's strip mining operations have been in a boom cycle for a steady 20-30 years, you have to expect the appearance of a bust cycle. The Pacific Coast states want nothing to do with Utah or Wyoming coal, so even of demand was increasing, shipping depots couldn't increase their shipments to China, India, etc. Australia's operations seem to be expanding with a $16 billion project to expand their Queensland coastal shipping ports. If China's demand for coal increases its the Aussies who will likely be the beneficiaries. If these folks haven't saved their cash and looked into retraining for jobs that have a future shame on them, we have had all the notices for years and years that coal is dying. The automakers should have been working on natural gas powered vehicles, as well as power companies building for natural gas, moving from coal.

Reminds me of here Harlan County Ky.

I didn't hear them say that Pennsylvania government has left two of our coal industries sold to Germany and China.

At least one in ten of those guys are smart enough to start their own business. But if the entire community is flat broke which I doubt you can't sell your service or product. We need a real national health care system. Companies don't want to pay for your health care and retirement but they don't want to pay you enough to survive let alone raise a family. Corporate welfare is medicaid and food stamps. now they have huge tax cuts. Who did that help? Not these guys.

Investing in buggy whips. Not a good decision for your future. Education = Good Jobs

The air isn't safe to breathe...but JOBS!

How's it going now?

While I pity these workers and the communities they live in, I do not want to see us burning coal for electricity. We have plenty of cleaner, cheaper options. It's no surprise that after you pay to clean up the air, the water and the tailings piles that coal is not all that cheap any more, and in fact is not competitive with solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, wave, and natural gas.

The government here in NSW Australia is going ahead with a $600m gas fired power plant in the middle of SEVERAL coal mines but gas is that cheap now it's not worth building a thermal coal power plant!!!

Coal "IGCC" is more thermally efficient than oil

the average american worker makes 45K a year? Where in the hell did they get that number? Sooo not true. More like 20.

I worked at black thunder mine. Ive now moved to Texas. Seems like most of these comments are from people who don't have a clue about these coal mines mean to their towns and the people who count on them to make a living. Saying oh well retrain and move on. Its easier said than done....

That huge truck is a Euclid, it requires a 10 foot ladder to get in the drivers seat.

It seems to be becoming clear that relying on the money system is not reliable

Don't give two fucks about hand-full of people who don't want to get out of their comfort zone against the whole plant

my families farm and barn up on the hill at 19:25 in the video

As a kid the first time I heard of "clean coal" I wondered if it was clear like glass.

Wow those two young guys we’re making some damn good money over 100,000.00$ his last year that’s crazy I’m not happy they lost there jobs but they may have to do something for far less wages heck I was only making like 47-48,000 straight time and I had 21 yrs on the job and it was hard labor no unions around here either in the panhandle of Florida one of the few times they did come bye the job the City frowned on us having any contact with them basically you converse with them you’ll get run off.

They could have invested that money in idk,stocks for example,so you dont rely on 1 industry for your life. 80k is a lot of money, they are not poor people

over $100k last year to $0 ,,,,,, how do you get a job that's going to pay that much again .its not going to happen ,,

Ash is also toxic.

Didn't age well did it

Take coal completely out of the American economy and watch the price of electricity go through the roof. Solar and other renewable energies are just not viable in large amounts yet. When renewable energies are cost effective, they will make coal extinct, but until then renewable energy is just not a viable large scale use.

'Jesus saves', but apparently not the coal mine.

They moved my job to Mexico! So cry me a river! We all moved into the service sector so move there yourself !! Damn !

The coal mining companies NEED to be made RESPONSIBLE to bring in other means for people to have a job. They have been using people for many years, and then they close seemingly without a thought for their workers. Factories would employ a lot of people. Why don't the Senate/Congress people help the miners?

is it natural gas that is displaceing coal

Lol fast forward to now 😉. Coal futures are through the roof. Not to mention you need it for solar panels 🥴😉

How to destroy the good earth for fun and profit, to hell with the lives of miners and families.

I drove through Gillette, WY at the end of June 2019 and could see the mines and the long coal trains. Two weeks later I heard that two of the mines laying off 600 workers. That means that train workers would start to be laid off. This video states that the average coal miner get paid $83,00. a year. I only make $36,000. a year and have enough money saved to go on cruises and other vacations. I guess these folks that are hurt financially have run up huge debts, instead of saving their money. Buying big houses, smoke cigarettes, drink lots of beer, purchase big brand new expensive pick-up trucks, and brand new expensive SUVs with seven loans. I drive used cars with cash, got a ten year mortgage on my house to pay less interest, and pay-off my credit card each month. My credit card gets me airplane points, so I fly almost free on Southwest Airlines. Coal sales will drag on into the future, but many more wind turbines are being installed and soon will produce more electric, replacing the need of coal in USA. High BTU Met. coal will be sold to other countries to help produce steel. The 'Hand Writing' is on the wall. Consol Coal Co. is going into gas fracking, closing and selling off many of their coal mines. And Murray, the coal king, filed bankruptcy.

Natural gas is a clearn alternative but environmentalists don't like the oil and gas industry. People want a tradition into greener energy well this is a cleaner form of energy

If I could pursue my life dream of a manufacturing business I’d look into starting it in a small coal mine town where people are eager to find a job and the local government is more friendly to a new employer than the poisonous Minnesota Department of Revenue is where I am.

easy to see why it changed that hard between 2013 and 2016.... saudi-russian oil price war or more saudi vs US shale oil/gas (until now the whole world united more or less, even Norway was invited as an observer to the Meeting when record cuts of 9.7 million bpd where made, thats ~407.4 million US gallons daily they did cut for 2 months, than reducing cut to "only" 7.7 million and than to around ~5.5 but they made a 3 months full cut with a 101% rate of cutting (only because Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and a bit Oman helped to fight overproduction in West-african countries and Iraq, Iran is not part thanks to Mr. Dumbs sanctions... but yea that Mr. didn't wanted to stabilize prices (which would have saved a lot of these coal workers and the jobs arround them, he wanted cheap oil, oil output as high as possible, even now Canada + US production is almost self sufficient, with more fuel demand being removed (E-Mobility and so on), and rising US production in oil (it was over 13.1 million barrels per day, highest ever any country had, only the Soviet Union came close to that during their best year, but even they didn't produce so much as demand wasn't existing), if the US would have joined the cuts of 2.504 million barrels from Saudi-Arabia and Russia (each! Together both cut 5.008 million barrels in these 3 months! after this the 2 million more...well 23 countries and some who were hardliners like mexico, somehow an american thing?, did only cut 100k instead of the 400k, kazakhstan cut 390k with having only a very little bit lower oil production for the year which counted, now they could produce more than Mexico, since Mexico is cutting because of missing investment, now Brent goes to 50 US-$, WTI over 45$, the long this stays or even reaches 50$ too, more likely it will have consequences, but natural gas, at least outside the US with a giant flood of shale gas, many basins with so rich gas ressources that they drill for gas directly and many having it as a byproduct of the oil production, and "flaring" it away as companies did on oil rigs earlier is not only forbidden and stupid, you can collect it, even if its not that much, you get some liquids, NGLs and the rest can be stored and maybe taken away by a LNG-tanker or if many rigs are close to each other and the coast is not that far away you build many small pipelines from each rigs and where they meet you increase the size and bring it to the coast and there all that gas from maybe 10 rigs can be stored and be converted into LNG if not used for electricity generation or as fuel for cars, in Poland and Italy you could find over 20 years ago many "gaz"-cars, and you will still find some, just the car industry doesn't really support that and since Zero Emission vehicles are now the target they get billions of subsidies direct ones and indirect by reducing taxes or other thing for up to 10 years, even if you have such expensive electricity like we have in Germany, 3 times the US-average and I saw a map with many people even below 0,11 US-$ or only a bit over 0.10 US-$ per kWh... right now strong €uro with 1.21$ and we pay a bit over 0.30 here in Berlin for power incl. "everything", dont know what green only costs, here not so much as we have the area around berlin which is one of the leading states in wind energy in europe or the world, so even the standard-mix costs with right now exchange rate over 0.36 US-$ per kWh and even a bit more if I would know the exact digits, its like 0.3038€ or so...so they can increase it in a year to 0.3049€ and people dont realize it that much....), well not everyone can be like norway, population like berlin-brandenburg metro area and an area almost as huge as Germany with hydropower potential for maybe more than just Germany...

crown two report to work tomorrow Peabody 10 show up next week farmersville crown one report next month

The Obama administrations war on coal forced coal fired power plants to modify to gas. They could never go back because of the huge price tag to switch back. Power plants spent a fortune changing to gas. But gas is not free. I grew up in the coal and gas fields. Everyone I know has something to do with coal or gas. One more reason is cheap foreign coal. When I was a kid you would never see import coal and New Port News, or anywhere on the coast. But now, it's a different story. It wiped out complete regions of people. Politicians have sold this country out, while other countries are running on full throttle.

Learn clean energy.

Let’s just completely get rid of a natural resource that God gave us and cost people jobs! SMH!!!!! I’m all for trying to have a cleaner environment, but not at a cost of many, many, many lost jobs!!!!!! Wake up America!

The Natural Gas Boom and the Choking Off of Coal by Obama.

Horse and buggy, typewriter and vinyl manufacturing jobs have all gone too. Coal workers need to retrain and move on as coal is dying quick, around the world in favor of much cleaner and less labor intensive: natural gas, wind and solar. Adios coal!

That girl sure is Shatnering her lines.

Infrastructure building could employ thousands of these people but tax cuts have been the priority for congress and there is no money for investment. Public/private partnerships may take up some slack but if there is nobody with money to help repay the investment made then it won't be spent.

How do you plan on making iron and steel without coal? Park your Prius! Yes it was made thanks to coal!

It's coal it's a feast or famine type of thing the men and women from the eastern coal belt have delt with ity for yrs I for 1 went to a prep plant in eastern west Virginia right in the Maryland line and was making the most money I had ever made in my life and then the next thing I knew I went from making a huge payday to making shit thanks to an administration set on shutting down coal thank God I knew how to pipeline and do other types of grading

Hey folks coal is dirty and more and more unnecessary, this is not new news. it's hard to feel sorry for people who have known for years that what they count on is no longer needed. education in New technology is what is needed in these places. Remember what happened to the steel industry, nothing is forever.

We can thank Obama for the lay offs in coal

Times change and you either move on or wither on the vine. Whining about the decline of coal isn't going to bring back the coal industry anymore than Ghost Dancing could bring back the buffalo. Yeah, it's sad that many of these communities will decline, but shaking your fist at the future and saying "I ain't gonna go there" won't do you any good either.

There is a 28 MW coal fired plant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that stopped burning coal in 2011 yet the plant still produces the same amount of power today. Did they switch to natural gas? No. They switched to woodchips as a source or renewable fuel and now spends over 20 million dollars in New Hampshire and Maine to provide the fuel giving badly needed jobs as all the paper mills in both states are gone. I personally like coal as a fuel for power plants but if there are large forests available there are options other than natural gas.

A lot of people want to lay blame on Obama. the death of coal began long before Obama was out of grade school. i worked strip mine 1957. went underground 1968 Peabody coal co. the EPA and the clean air act was enacted long before Obama was ever heard of. by the time Obama came along it was too late to save coal.I as much as anybody hated to see dying. i made a decent living working in the coal industry. then Trump came along blowing smoke about how he was going to bring back so many coal mining job.i live in southern Illinois what once was known as coal country, the few coal mines that are still in operation are closing every day. Just another promise that Trump ran on that did not happen.

Some of these people sound like they would rather keep doing what they're doing, until the world is unlivable! That's just madness. For humanity to survive, we HAVE TO switch to renewables.

do the women at the food Bank really need food ... they're very overweight ... they could lose at least a hundred pounds and still be healthy

:( 😭

Remember when trump said he was going to bring back coal? 🤣🤣 He golfed instead and only wanted your votes.

I'm sorry but coal miners complaining about coal becoming a thing of the past, is like lamplighters complaining about electric street lights taking their job away.

I remember during the last election Mr. B Sanders was saying that coal is a sun setting industry and he was going to introduce green energy production plants in these coal mining areas. Why didn't they take up that offer?

It’s amazing coal made it this far, honestly.

England stopped mining in the eighties cos we use North Sea gas what planet u on our last deep coal mine closed in 2015 we still have open cast but now the gas starting to run out so we screwed lol there is clean ways to burn coal

China is still burning coal. Canadian coal mine still export coal. Mainly to China.

Nonsense

beautieful clean coal...☺

I wish them all well. Maybe the solar boom can help.

Seems odd that the guy reminisces about waking up to pollutants on his car and shit air quality. This gives some insight to why the Chinese let air pollution to get out of control. Seriously peoples obsessions with jobs are retarded. Like you'd rather develop black lung and watch family members die from avoidable medical issues then to not have a job or leave your community? I work in cable and we are under no illusion that our industry is dying thanks to Netflix, RU-vid, and other streaming services. We have meetings exclusively dedicated to this subject. No one is complaining we're all preparing for what's next instead of hanging on to a dying industry. 4 years ago we had 130 people in our department now we're at 24. This isn't my only experience with a dying industry. My home town had a paper mill that pretty much propped up the local economy. My dad worked there for 30 years and when it went under the whole town fell apart. Perhaps people have placed far too much faith in business models that constantly evolve and change. Coal is not coming back and these people should spend less time trying to revive an industry that's killing our planet and look for opportunities in renewable energy which is creating a crazy amount of jobs. I have 8 buddies that work as wind techs and make very good money for not having a college degree and I have 2 friends that found work installing solar panels. Watching this I don't get the sense that these are thinking people with any knowledge or foresight in the industry they work in.

Looking at the size of the people in this story they're not going hungry!And by the way old mate when you mentioned England you mean Great Britain.

Simple Huge Fact in Play here. We have OverPlayed Fossil Fuels. This FF Energy source has gotten Dysfunctional and Slightly Mad.

These mines are still open and producing in Gillette 😂 When one company goes bankrupt another one just steps in and buys it. I work in the oil and gas industry that surrounds the coal mines in the thunder basin. They are most definitely still going, so for the people who say that they got closed and are never opening back up... unfortunately you’re wrong. Also Wyoming coal is some of the cleanest burning coal because it is low sulfur. None of the fossil fuels are going away anytime soon. Until renewable energy is actually profitable then it won’t happen.

Wonder how many voted for trump thinking he would bring back jobs for them ..

Leigh Paterson needs some muscles to go along with that muscles to hurt

The average worker makes 48,000 year. Are you all nuts? What planet do you live on? Come back to reality and quit putting out false info!

The coal state are responsible, they knew that coal was in dire straights, but they did nothing to diversify the economy of these coal cities , nothing to develop carbon capture.

See you later coal miners.

how are horses growing in the hunter valley horses die!!!

Conservatives: "Learn to code!" Conservatives when the coal mine shuts down: "I don't know how to survive anymore. I don't have any life skills from this century."

Goodbye coal and gass... Hello Tesla 😁. Stay focused people.

Look at Denmark almost all of their electricity is from wind power in fact their wind field in the North Sea encompasses an area the size of Kansas and supplies nearly 15% of all of Europe's electrical demands and growing. We have the Great Plains states that some have said is potentially the Saudi Arabia of wind power yet we have a numbskull of a POTUS in Trump who won't take advantage

Dilute and intermittent sources of energy will *never ever* be cheaper than reliable and energy dense forms of energy. That's why wind and solar will remain jokes forever. Go nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, and hydropower. Replace the Homer City Generating Station with two 1,100 Mwe nuclear reactors.

6:45 hey guys don't cry Hollywood have jobs PORNO and good drugs then you don't remember what the hell happened to get bayday