Why do liberals want to kill the oilfield and coal? You know the absolute last industry where a man without a degree can make six figures?

Liberals don't have to kill coal. It's dying on its own. Republicans, and many coal miners, blame Obama era regulations for the decline of coal but that's not accurate. What's killing it is natural gas. The vast majority of coal in the US is used for power generation and natural gas is just far superior on that front. It's much cleaner burning and its a whole hell of a lot cheaper. Coal isn't failing because of regulation, but because of competition. And the reality is that nothing Trump does is going to change that. He can never bring the cost of coal down enough to be competitive with natural gas and power companies have already sunk tons of cash into creating natural gas plants so they're not going to switch back to coal.

But the reason that Americans, not just liberals, want to reduce our use of fossil fuels is that they're huge pollutants. There's tons of adverse effects from them, including respiratory disease and polluted waters. But we're now seeing the huge problem of global warming, which effects everyone in some way. And the reality is that the fossil fuel industry is one industry. Why should every other American industry have to suffer to help these guys out? Think of the hurricane which just hit Florida. Hurricanes are becoming more frequen and more powerful because of global warming. So these places are getting hit and getting damaged because of the use of these fuels. The same thing is replicated over and over across the world. The drought and wildfires in California, changing fish availability, greater heat, it's all a consequence of this one industry. The question we've really got ask ourselves is how much Americans, and humanity in general, should suffer in order to subsidize this one particular industry, which we can ultimately do without?

You mention the good pay for these jobs but that's not because of the jobs themselves. There's nothing inherent in mining which makes it a good paying job. What made coal mining jobs good paying was unions. The unions fought and bled, literally, to ensure that these jobs would have good pay, enough for men to live decently on, even without a college degree. Liberals support unionization, which would help make other jobs decent paying ones as well.

So that the man does not die. It is better to make five figures and live than to make six figures and die.

We get get our oil from Saudi Arabia, everything else is a sham.

I lived in Appalachia for a long time. I don't know much about the oil business, but I do know about coal. Even if coal were to make a comeback, which would be an environmental disaster, employment would be far lower than in the pick and shovel days.

Even a few decades ago, most deep mines employed only a few dozen workers. That compared to hundreds in the old days. Technology allowed the companies to map a coal seam. A company in Germany then made a machine which a few miners would lay on. That machine was designed specifically for that seam. When the seam was depleted, the mine was closed up with the machine inside.

I don't think they do. They want to be able to manage it more. Make it safer so there are no more spills and workers are safer.

As for coal, that's a really tough and dirty job too and a dangerous one for anyone. Most coal workers still don't live beyond a certain age, even with filtering masks.

Coal is obsolete. It does great harm to the environment. Under Moscow Don, a total of just 57 coal mining jobs were added. Coal mining is a dirty

a high-risk job with no future. People shouldn't have to beg for a job in the south.

The governor of W. Virginia sold his coal mines to Russians for a lot of money and then bought them back for pennies. That is called money laundering for the Russians. The governor and his children haven't even paid his workers for months, their paychecks bounced.

The Republicans are against any progress, they want to go back into time like typical elderly people who think those were the good old days. They lack the motivation to learn new skills.

Because they won't be happy until every blue collar worker is working for minimum wage and needs welfare. Liberals want to keep people down and dependent. They want to be needed.

Coal is not healthy for the worker or the consumer, and it is an obsolete industry. 100 times as many workers work on windmills and solar panels. Those renewable industries also need mechanics and technicians without college degrees, thousands more than are needed in the dying coal tunnels. Get with the program..progress is not going to slow down and wait for you.

Perhaps because those industries are destructive to the earth. Of course, selfish people like you won't care... Your grandchildren and great grandchildren will suffer the ill-effects of your failure to educate yourself.

I think it's too late and that those jobs are going to be the death of all of us.