The Face of the Decline

I ran across a discussion by the authors of the following book on PCN this morning. Looks very interesting, will try and find out where it can be purchased:

The Face of Decline
by Thomas Dublin
Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

The anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania helped power industrialization in the United States, and created a booming regional prosperity. Today very little mining or industry remains, although residents have made valiant efforts to restore the fabric of their communities. In “The Face of Decline,” historians Thomas Dublin and Walter Licht offer a sweeping history of this area over the course of the twentieth century. Combining business, labor, social, political, and environmental history, the authors delve into coal communities to explore grassroots ethnic life and labor activism, economic revitalization, and the varied impact of economic decline across generations of mining families.

Thomas Dublin is Professor of History at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He is the author of many books, including “When the Mines Closed: Stories of Struggles in Hard Times.” Walter Licht is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books, including “Working for the Railroad: The Organization of Work in the Nineteenth Century.”

Hello matthaus Here is where you can buy all of THOMAS Dublin books http://www.amazon.com/books http://www.canals.org FACE of DECLINE THE ANTHRACITE COAL REGION AS well as most of his others on there some are on sale there are several on ANTHRACITE COAL

This is an excellent, well researched book on Anthracite, the history, people and industry. The best available in my opinion!

With developing nations and our power plants needing coal why isn't PA booming?

one word..........MSHA

That's four..... Pennsylvania does mine quite a lot of bituminous coal. But there's many reasons why you' won't see massive increase, environmental concerns for both the mine and the power plants that would need it top the list.

So were does most of our coal come from that is burned in power plants?

Specifically for Pennsylvania? Probably whatever is mine in the western part of the state. By the chart in the folllowing link Pennsylvania ranks #4 in coal production in the U.S. so you can assume its exporting to other states as it ranks quite high in the Bitumnous category. Here's some quick numbers for 2006 in thousands of short tons mined.:

Pennsylvania Total 66,029

• Anthracite 1,529
• Bituminous 64,500

West Virginia Total 152,374

Wyoming Total 446,742

Appalachian Total 391,159

Western Total 619,449

U.S. Total 1,162,750

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table1.html

Pennsylvania contributed approx. 5% of the U.S. total. The recentage for Wyoming is staggering

Well Richared I looked at the link above The PA numbers are off a little it says in 2006 they are 17 Anthracite Deep mines when there was 14 well by the end of 2006 there are 13 deep mines in pa you would have to go back to 2004 to see 17 deep mines in Pa I am still waiting for the DEP to release the 2007 report
but you can see in 2006 all of the mines in PA Anthracite And Bit mines Productions

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... index.html

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... ground.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... urface.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... refuse.htm

Speaking as a someone living 8 hours north of the PA coal region and across Lake Ontario, it seems to me that the demand for coal exists in my area. My big cost is SHIPPING. Up until 30 years ago there were railroads running through rural Ontario, a mainline slicing conveniently through less than a mile from my farm. Several carloads could be dropped almost anywhere in those lazy hazy days of yore when cowcatchers were standard equipment on locomotives... The only coal moving by diesel power was final delivery to the end user's coal bin. Now, with everything running on rubber and diesel it is outrageously expensive to move a heavy bulky product.
If railroads could somehow be encouraged to rebuild their branch lines, and cater to the small guy, as they once did, then coal use would skyrocket, as it once did, due to the decreased transportation costs. Whether or not CN or CP Rail could be convinced to operate small branch lines with short mixed freight trains is doubtful. Recently there has been a spate of articles in the papers here bemoaning the loss of our railroads, and the damage that heavy trucks are doing to our roads, the pollution from trucks, the loss of country charm that small railway stations provided, etc.
If I could cut my shipping in half, I could double my sales. end of story. So, do we petition the railroads? Frankly they don't give a rat's behind about anything less than a million dollar customer. Perhaps it will take another depression to wake them up...

traderfjp wrote:So were does most of our coal come from that is burned in power plants?

Almost all coal fired power plants run on bituminous coal as it runs about 1/3 the cost of anthracite. With the volumes they use, it is obviously saving HUGE numbers of dollars.

Here is some info as far as Bit coal goes for PA And the Last link will be On Athracite in PA

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... ground.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... urface.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... refuse.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... rators.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... ummary.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... ummary.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... orical.htm

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... racite.htm

Chris Murley wrote:one word..........MSHA

More like EPA.

The wyoming coal is more like lignite and is low btu but is desirable due to its very low sulfer content. Eastern coals have higher sulfer which is costly to scrub.