If you take time to frequent a pro-coal Facebook page such as Count on Coal, you may or may not be surprised by the statements you find there, most of which aimed at the EPA. What is most disturbing however, is the amount of blind support they receive from the coal mining families.
There is nothing new or strange about the coal industry fighting regulations. One just needs to remember the industry’s murderous resistance to labor unions. From the industry perspective, unions threatened to increase labor costs when coal mining families requested higher wages, healthcare benefits, and a retirement after their bodies were used up. But in the companies eyes, as it still is today, that was taking money out of their already deep pockets. Makes you think the company owners were digging the coal themselves.
Companies have also been against safety measures when it meant slowing down production or purchasing extra equipment to keep miners safe. Again, they saw that as cutting into their profits and could care less about the 104,000 coal miners that have died in their mines since 1900.
The power the industry has over our communities should be illegal. But as long as there is a lawyer and enough money, you can get laws written in your favor, despite our country supposedly being a democracy “for the people, by the people.” Coal companies have money enough to fund industry associations which I like to consider coal company unions. They like to have their own unions, but they sure don’t want us to have one. They also put enough money into them that they can create public relations campaigns and run advertisements about all the “wonderful” things they do for us poor Appalachian hillbillies.
There tactics have been overwhelmingly successful, diverting attention away from the true reasons behind our problems with poverty, and even going so far as to co-opt the pride and heritage of coal miners, pitting them against “outsiders intent on destroying a long standing history and proud way of life” such as environmentalists and the EPA.
They keep people thinking that “coal is all we’ve got,” so it is understandable that mining communities become outraged when the only living wage jobs in the region are being threatened by these outsiders who are trying to hold the coal companies accountable, and force them to clean up their messes and put coal miner safety first. But at some point mining communities must stop and think for themselves and realize that the coal industry, despite all the things they say they do for us, are lying through their goddamn teeth. We’d hope that after a 100 plus years of them doing it, people would have learned by now. But apparently not as sad as I am to say.
But here it is again, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
The coal industry knows this.
There is one point I must make before going further. There is a difference between intentional ignorance and unintentional ignorance. For decades the people did not know about the health issues caused from smoking tobacco. Like the coal industry, the tobacco industry had lots of money to lobby politicians and advertise about all the positives (yes positives) of smoking tobacco.
When it finally did come out that smoking was bad for your health, the tobacco industry had a campaign started to question the medical reports, causing the general public to question if smoking really did cause health issues as good ole Uncle Mike was dying of lung cancer.1 Nevertheless, people had a choice to make: continue smoking as idiotic as it may be, or quit.
But those who came before the implementation of warning labels were not given the evidence to make such an educated choice (though it was pretty obvious to most that those who smoked often developed health issues). Earlier smokers were therefor unintentionally ignorant of the fact that smoking was seriously detrimental to their health. But today, in 2013, the clouds of tobacco industry BS have finally been cleared, and those who ignore the facts have no such excuse. The make themselves willfully ignorant of the facts so they can continue enjoying something they enjoy.
The same has to be said about coal mining and the environmental health impacts it causes. Over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more evidence that coal mining is causing pollution that makes people sick. Seriously sick. Various forms of cancer, pulmonary illnesses, kidney diseases, etc. When they mine coal, it messes up the water and puts dust in the air that we—and especially our kids—aren’t meant to drink or breath. The only defense we have is environmental regulations that make the coal companies keep pollutants out of our streams and water wells and dust out of the air.
But not everyone agrees. The following comments were posted on the “Count on Coal” Facebook page.
“I personally want to send a big shout out to Obumma [sic] and the EPA. As I sit here at work wondering when the layoffs are starting. [sic] And yes we have already been told there will be layoffs due to the selling of several of our mines. [sic] Will I have a job wont [sic] know for a week or two. But I can tell you one thing even if I do there will be so many others that will not. So thank you. [sic] You Muslim loving America hating so called president of ours.” – Debbie Oates Kadar
“Lets do away with the E. P. A. So our country can get back to useing [sic] COAL and Coal fired Power plants. They want to get rid of our jobs so I think we should get rid of Theirs, [sic] and dont [sic] be long at it.” –Wade Mcneely
“Lets all run the EPA out of America!” –Gail Spooner
“the goverment dose not stop to think how the stupid regulations affect the people in the united states , loss of jobs and health care together . if , we the people , are not put in a position to take care of our families and our country , who do they [goverment] think will be able to support them in the uptown way they are use to . Coal has keep america going for many years and if they will back off it will keep us strong . lets keep the lights on , coal family [sic]”-Larry Rowe
From these comments, we get an idea about how coal industry funded public relations campaign work to fuel public ignorance. But then, people are taking it to the next level when they convince people to vote people into office who will get rid of regulations that protect not just us, but the rest of the nation who depends on government regulations to keep greedy industries from poisoning them—not just the coal industry.
I cannot help but hang my head when I see the stupidity of other people calling for the end of regulation—people who never seem to take a moment to consider the consequences of what they are proposing. They damn sure don’t know what it’s like in other countries where they companies have succeeded in having everything deregulated.
Just this past week I had the opportunity to meet a man whom the term “courageous” does not even come close to describing. His name was Anibal Perez, a Colombian man who has witnessed the violent, destructive forces against his people by the Drummond Coal Company. Despite being based in the good ole USA, Drummond has open pit mines in Columbia and are profiting immensely from reduced regulations. They profit from cheap labor because there are no real labor laws to protect workers in remote areas of the country. And there is no real environmental regulations, or if there are, they aren’t enforced.
For speaking out about the human suffering and environmental damage caused by Drummond Coal, Perez has faced death threats from company supported paramilitary forces. Paramilitary forces, by the way, are company-owned military forces.
From mine blasts that would make anything in Appalachia look like a damp firecracker, to pumping millions of gallons of coal slurry straight into the local bay areas where it comes back onto the beaches and pollutes the fish people depend on for food, Drummond Coal works without the worry of safety or environmental regulations. They maintain the status quo by having their company funded paramilitary assassinate people fighting for basic human rights.
For those who keep saying that we need to get rid of the EPA and other protective federal regulations, they should take a little more time to see what’s going on in the rest of the world—in other countries who do not have regulations. I’ve provided a few examples.
This is what happens when companies, many of them US based, get to do what they want without the problem of “regulations.” I’m surprised anyone with any intelligence would call for the same conditions in their own country.
When I was a kid watching GI Joe on Saturday mornings, they would say during their little public service announcements, “Knowing is half the battle.” Well, we are losing every battle, and the whole damn war. Sadly, it’s our kids and grand-kids who are going to pay the price with their health.
- Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt : how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming (1st U.S. ed). Bloomsbury Press. ↩︎