Page 26 - The Economist20171214

26 United States The Economist December 16th 2017
1.93 tons per miner-hour; by 2015 they pro-
duced just under 6.3. Automation did to
coal mining what it did to manufacturing:
made it more dramatically productive
even as it reduced the amount of human
labour required. This trend will probably
intensify in the near future, as machines
grow increasingly autonomous.
The dip in jobs also reflects a westward
shiftin America’scoal heartland. To the av-
erage American, the word “coalminer”
summons an image of a weather-beaten
man in Appalachia with a pickaxe in one
hand and a hard hat with a lamp on it
walking stoically into a mountain fissure.
That image has not been accurate for de-
cades. MostAmerican coal comesnotfrom
West Virginia or Kentucky, where produc-
tion has been falling since 1990, but from
immense surface mines in Wyoming’s
PowderRiverBasin. Coal there isfar cheap-
er to mine, partly because it requires much
less labour, than in Appalachia, where the
easiest seams have long been tapped out,
and what remains is deep inside moun-
tains and hard to reach.
Most American mined coal goes to gen-
Coal erate domesticenergy, buta disproportion-
Holler promises ate share of coal companies’ revenue
comes from exporting metallurgical coal,
used in steel manufacture. At the peak of
Chinese coal demand earlier this decade,
prices for exported “met” coal were often
triple those of other types. Coal firms bet
that demand would continue, and that
WELCH AND WILLIAMSON, WEST VIRGINIA Asian markets would also want ordinary
Whatthe presidenttalks aboutwhen he talks aboutcoal
steam coal. But as China’s economy began
N A brisk early-autumn morning in folks in Appalachia do…He just gave a re- to rebalance awayfrom massive infrastruc-
OWelch, seat of the poorest county in newed vigour and enthusiasm and confi- ture building and towards consumption,
America’s third-poorest state, four young dence in coal,” which was especially wel- demand flattened, then fell. If China’s ap-
men methodically demolish an old car- come after what Mr Raney calls the “eight petite remains depressed, along with glo-
parts factory. The men wielding sledge- miserable years” under Barack Obama’s bal and domestic demand, so will coal rev-
hammers are not vandals, but construc- administration, which “did everything enue and employment.
tion trainees hired by Coalfield Develop- they could to discourage” coal use. The The real threat to coal, though, is gas,
ment, a local non-profit, and they are president’s tenure in office has coincided which fracking has made cheap and abun-
working hard. The low, solid building has with increased coal production. In the first dant. Coal remains America’s second-
good bones, but has fallen into disrepair six months of 2017, America produced 16% most widely used energy source, generat-
from extended disuse. The same is true of more coal than it did in the same period ing 30% of American electricity in 2016,
Welch itself. The beautiful stone and brick last year, for which many in the industry, more than nuclear (20%) or renewable
buildings, complete with carved mullions, rightly orwrongly, credit MrTrump. sources (15%). Natural gas, however, gener-
stone flares along rooflines and other ar- But that is a small uptick set against a ated 34%, a share thathasrisen ascoal’shas
chitectural flourishes, show that once steady decline, which has been caused pri- fallen—by close to a third from 2011to 2016.
upon a time this town had confidence and marily not by environmental regulations, Renewable energy is also getting cheaper
money. Discount shops and boarded-up asMrTrump and manyin the coal industry and more widespread. Since 2010 the share
shopfronts testify to a harderpresent. claim, but by market forces. More people of domestic energy generated by renew-
McDowell County is the heart ofAppa- work as fitness trainers, actors or florists ables has grown by nearly 50%.
lachia, a once-Democratic region that vot- than in the coal business. The Bureau ofLa-
ed overwhelmingly for President Donald bour Statistics estimates that coalmining Gas and air
Trump. Mr Trump won four of America’s employed 51,200 people as of November Many Appalachians saw Mr Obama’s en-
top five coal-producing states (Illinois, 2017—an improvement, year-on-year, of vironmental attitude not as sound policy
with much of its population concentrated more than 1,500, butstill well belowthe re- aimed at mitigating the risks of climate
in and around liberal Chicago, was the ex- cent peakof89,700 in 2012. change, but as an affront from another big-
ception). As a candidate he posed in hard Nationally, coalmining employment city liberal looking down his nose at them.
hats, and repeatedly promised to put min- peaked in 1920, when there were around Similarly, Mr Trump’s support of coal
ers backto work. 785,000 miners. The marked decline in seems as much a political payoff to a re-
That has won him fans in coal country. employment partly stems from automa- gion and industry that supports him as a
Bill Raney, who heads the West Virginia tion. According to Devashree Saha and Si- retrograde effort to prop up a dirty and ex-
Coal Association, says that Mr Trump fan Liu of the Brookings Institute, a think- pensive energy source in defiance of mar-
“brought an appreciation for what these tank, in 1980 American mines produced ket economics. But such hope can be a bar- 1