1. Europe was mining coal before it began here in the United States in the 1800s.
2. Coal was first discovered in what is now West Virginia in 1742 by John Peter
Salley in what is now Boone County
3. The first reported commercial mining of coal in Ohio
was in 1800 in Jefferson County.
4. Coal was discovered in Kentucky in 1750, with the first commercial coal mine opened in 1820.
5. The United Mine Workers of America – (UMWA) was founded in Columbus, OH in
1890.
6. According to Kentucky EducationalTelevision, US coal reserves contain 12 times a much energy as all the oil
in Saudi Arabia!
7. West Virginia leads the nation in underground coal production.
8. 27 States in the US produce coal, see table below for a descending list of the
major producing states:
9. More than 90% of the annually mined coal in the United States is used by the US electrical power
industry.
10. Coal provides the majority of electric
power in 32 states.
11. According to the UMWA, coal is
the least expensive, safest, and highest naturally occurring BTU source
available for power generation in the world.
12. In many ways, coal mining has become a much easier and safer
job than it was long ago. However, coal miners face dangers and hardships at
work that require a high degree of skill and training to overcome.
13. As of the Annual Coal Report in 2012, the average number of employees working in US coal
mines was 89,838. Of these, the following numbers represent underground miners in
our surrounding states: 17,085 in West
Virginia, 1,969 in Ohio, and 11,181 in Kentucky.
14. The coal industry payroll is nearly $2 billion per year.
15. In KY, OH, & WV the average annual coal miner salary ranges from $70,000 - $85,000 annually.
Sources:
Coal mining is a very profitable business, but even so it is very traumatic, therefore it is necessary to take labor protection issues very seriously.
ReplyDeleteWow! I have never been interested about coal mining. Although, I would say that a was absorbed while reading these facts. Thank you.
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