Shortage

What is being shipped to China has no effect on coal production here being the sizes that are shipped is waste product
no one here is heating any homes with 04 05 & 06 size coal .

What is going to Canada is barley another one that there is not much use here for also buck nut and some rice is going up
there Also in winter time the breaker crush Nut down to smaller sizes like buck rice barley supply and demand.

What the problem here is to many fed and state Regulations and permit issuing and also a lot of mines are shut down do to this so less mines operating less coal being produced . Also the crazy fines involved over B.S.

And don't forget it is winter time less production do to coal weather below freezing temps to help production much when you are using thousands gallons of water per day to produce coal Men and Machine run slower in cold weather coal gets tight every winter so don't wait for winter time to get coal get in the spring and summer time

samhill wrote:Scrapper, I don't know where those rules came from, I worked in quite a few different places some union some not, including a couple of coal mines & facilities & none of them had what your claiming. I've been retired for a few years but still keep in touch with friends still working & no one has ever mentioned having more restrooms or much of anything changing.

MHSA are the ones issuing them fines to owner and operator of under ground Anthracite mines.
And FYI Scrapper as been in the Anthracite coal industry for over 40 years underground and above ground mining he sees it everyday And I know personally Many of the owners and operators that got those types of fines if they can't fine any

violation they will make them up They are order to when they leave the office everyday that is the MHSA inspectors orders go out and Write up violation hand out fines they want to shut all the independent miners down permitted been trying for decades now and with the big O in office there are doing Just that Remember what he said he wanted to do to the coal industry Reg it to death put them all out of business .

Sounds to me then that they have been picking on the coal industry for a long time, the problem that I see is when you have those big mines that ignore the rules & rather pay a fine(small amt. to them) & that gives a black eye to the whole industry, ain't that what most want, nothing but the big boys that will create jobs & give us our low prices.
Only mine work I ever did was above ground (strip & auger) there were no locker or comfort stations & the mills weren't much better for the # of employees, maybe they should crack down on them a bit. They had OSHA to deal with & knew exactly when they were coming. The American way, the big ones can pay off & the small ones are forced out. If enough demand for home coal comes about the only place to get it will be Wall Mart.

You tell them coalberner, the voice of authority, you and i both personally know at least a dozen owner operators who deal with the B.S. every day, until the big O is gone it is the way it is.How the hell can an independant family run mine producing 500 ton a week afford $ 250,000 BOND TO GUARENTEE THEY WILL RECLAIM THE LAND, CLOSE THE SLOPE AND PLANT GRASS. Its amazing you can get a permit to drill for gas in 30 days but you wait a minimum of 6 months to get a permit started for coal, Thanx for backing me up on this one. SCRAPPER

I was never saying that you guys were wrong, just that I had never heard of regs like that. Like I said those same regs. don't apply to all industries, & most were in before the big O as you call him. I think the small guys that are mostly anthracite end up feeling the heat from the super big Bit. mines. Just look at what they are letting the Mountain Top Mines get away with & the gas & oil have always been exempt from the clean waters act & probably others. Coal was King when industries ran rampant & because of what they did then the ones left have to pay the price.

I was told from my friend who sells coal that they were unable to get any more bulk coal from their normal supplier...
They have the ability to get coal from another source so no problem for now...
They were told there is a shortage this winter...
The reason being coal sales to China...
Two major players have signed contracts for overseas sales...