A major coal company announced plans this week to close eight coal mines and cut 1,200 jobs. One expert discusses what that means for the states in question.
The announcement from Alpha Coal involves eight mines across Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It also cuts production by 16 million tons. Alpha Coal's president is quoted as saying that companies like his face "a regulatory environment that is aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal."
Tom Borelli, senior fellow with FreedomWorks, discusses the situation.
"It's really a job killer, as the number of 1,200 coal miners being laid off describes, but this is not all equal," he says. "In a state like West Virginia, that state is heavily dependent on coal for jobs. So when you take out a primary industry in a state that depends on that industry, you're really going to harm the state and lead that state to perhaps bankruptcy."
Borelli adds there are also the "political consequences of President Obama's war on coal."
"The United Coal Miners union [has] not endorsed President Obama," he tells OneNewsNow. "At least there is somebody thinking. He's putting their union workers out on the street, and this could really hurt President Obama in the states of West Virginia, Virginia and perhaps Pennsylvania."
Borelli thinks it will also be an issue in Ohio, where 80 percent of its electricity comes from coal.
Meanwhile, Alpha is now concentrating on metallurgical coal used in steel-making overseas.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on its "Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012." The legislation includes five bills, four of which were previously approved in the House, but stalled in the Senate.