I had been slowly trending toward conservatism before the 2008 presidential election. After 40-plus years of being a liberal, one just can’t quit cold turkey, or cold donkey, as the case may be. But I remember the night that sealed the deal. It was when I learned that Obama planned to bankrupt the coal industry.
Obama’s declaration was more than a nod to the environmental lobby. Democrats are anti-fossil fuels, but at the time, I thought they did not yet have the clout to completely shut down the oil and gas fields. I suspected that coal might be a bit more vulnerable.
A few hours east of where I Iived lies Craig, Colo. It has always been a town that depended on its coal mines to survive. Without them, the town and its residents would fall on hard times. A few hours to the south of my home is Price, Utah. It is in Carbon County, which is so named because of the coal deposits found there. Price, Utah, and the nearby town of Helper have also been historically dependent on the coal mines as the mainstay of their economy.
I knew that if Obama made good on his promise, real people would be out of work, and their lives would be upended. And Obama would not care about or even meet those people. In terms of oil and gas, I watched as Obama, the bureaucrats, and the lobbyists were able to hamstring the oil and gas industry in my town. Although the extraction industry is still in business, it is not the contributor to the local economy it once was.
Because my dentist at the time was in Helper, which is adjacent to Price, we would go there for my appointments. It felt eerie. The downtown was essentially empty. There were a few shops still valiantly holding on, and the city’s radio station played its broadcast over loudspeakers to what were basically deserted streets. There was, of course, a Walmart and the usual array of fast food venues and national retailers, but all in all, Price looked like a city where someone had forgotten to hang out the “Closed” sign.
But in Carbon County, coal production has stopped. That’s according to a report by the Utah Geological Survey cited by Fox 13 News in Salt Lake. The TV station reports that while the industry is still active in the area, the last mine was shuttered in 2019. Mike Vanden Berg, energy and minerals program manager for the Utah Geological Survey, told the station:
Carbon County has a long history of coal production in Utah, but there’s lower and lower coal demand over the last several years. The mines in Carbon County were some of them that had to close. Recently, there’s been an increase in coal demand but now the problem is finding people to work in the mines.
Vanden Berg noted the miners now travel to mines in neighboring counties for work. And the county says that without the mines in Carbon County, the tax burden is now shifting to property owners. As a result of all these developments, local officials are looking to boost tourism and hope to attract new industries.
I’ve seen this before, back in my old town. Of course, Vernal, Utah, has the benefit of being located near the Dinosaur National Monument, the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, and the Green River, which is popular with rafters and trout fishermen. New industry is another matter altogether. Some salvation may be had in people who have the option to escape California and telecommute from rural Utah. That migration may increase the number of companies offering goods and services. But the service industry does not offer the wages, pensions, and benefits that could be had in mining.
And what of those people who have spent years in mining? Ryan Madsen, who runs a coffee truck, told the outlet, “You can’t just take somebody who’s worked in the coal mine for 30 years and say, ‘Sorry, go to school.’ It’s not very fair. So I think that we just need to think about them as we move forward.”
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Vanden Berg said that the future of mining in Carbon County is dim despite the fact that a new mine was recently permitted in the area. The irony, of course, is that our left-leaning overlords have an electricity fetish. That fetish is directly connected to wind and solar because those companies are major donors to progressive politicians, particularly Joe Biden. But solar and wind farms are, of course, dependent on sunshine and wind. And the turbines I see near my current home are off more often than they are on. And so it should fall to coal to keep those EVs rolling. And the lights on, and all of those electric stoves cooking.
But with coal not being very environmentally sexy, our leaders would prefer to see people swelter in rolling blackouts across the nation before admitting they are wrong.
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