Help wanted: coal miners

As green energy fails across the world, demand for coal is rising. Prices tripled. The USA with 357 years of coal reserves should be raking it in.

But after decades of demonizing coal, the United States has run out of coal miners. It is a skilled craft that requires training and certifiucation because of safety concerns. Baby boomers are retiring and their sons and their grandsons decided not to get into a dying industry.

The canary in the coal mine is that no canaries are going into the coal mines.

The demand is there as never before.

The Wall Street Journal reported, "Coal supply shortages are pushing prices for the fuel to record highs and laying bare the challenges to weaning the global economy off one of its most important—and polluting—energy sources.

"The crunch has many causes—from the post-pandemic boom to supply-chain strains and ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions. And it is expected to last at least through the winter, raising fears in many countries of fuel shortfalls in the months ahead.

"Australia’s Newcastle thermal coal, a global benchmark, is trading at $202 a metric ton, three times higher than at the end of 2019. Global production of coal, which generates around 40% of the world’s electricity, is about 5% below pre-pandemic levels.

"In Europe, the rising prices for coal and other energy resources have hit factory output and driven household energy bills higher. Major coal importers in Asia, including Japan and South Korea, are jostling to secure supplies."

That is really good news if you are sitting on 357 years worth of coal reserves.

But the next paragraph dripped with schadenfreude.

It said, "In China, dwindling supplies and surging costs have resulted in electricity shortfalls on a scale unseen in more than a decade, hitting industry and prompting some cities to turn off traffic lights to conserve power." 

Hahahahahahahaha -- gasps for breath -- hahahahahaha.

No traffic lights for you!

And coal prices may rise higher because Forbes reported, "Energy crisis is turning even ‘net zero’ countries back to coal—and prices are hitting record highs."

Alas, coal in the ground is worthless if you cannot get hardhats to dig it out either above ground or below.

Bloomberg reported, "The number of coal miners in the U.S. has been sliding for years, and is down about 8.6% from before the pandemic. People who have left are reluctant to come back and young people are even more wary about taking a job in an industry that they’ve consistently been told has no future given the global push toward clean energy.

"That’s making it difficult for mining companies to boost production at a time when the global energy crisis is making utilities desperate for every lump of coal they can dig up. Even with coal prices surging around the world, the labor shortages are another sign that it’s going to be tough to shore up energy stockpiles."

And the pay is good. Wages of $100,000 a year are now common.

Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC, told Bloomberg, "There’s a perception that the coal industry, if not dead, is dying. Young people just have many more choices."

Yes, they can go to college for four years and rack up $100,000 in student loan debt, come home, and get a job that pays half what coal-mining pays.

Just a reminder, I live across the river from a coal-burning electric plant.