On Monday, WYMT-TV in Hazard, Ky., reported that a loaded CSX coal train was blocked from leaving the Cloverlick No. 3 mine near Cumberland, Ky., by coal miners forming a human blockade on the railroad tracks. The miners are some of the dozens that have been left out of work at the mine after its owner, Revelation Energy and its subsidiary BlackJewel Mining, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early July. After the filing, the company ceased most operations at its mining locations, leaving its miners out of work and most unpaid for work they already performed. The miners’ benefits and insurance has also been left in question by the situation. During Monday’s protest, the miners, who remain peaceful, stood in front of the train attempting to leave the Cloverlick mine — which sits on CSX’s former Louisville & Nashville Poor Fork Branch out of Loyall, Ky. — and demanded they be paid for work, which likely produced the coal loaded in the train.
Kentucky State Police tells Trains News Wire that troopers responded to the protest site Monday, but took no action. “At this time, we have no involvement, and we’re not there,” says Kentucky State Police Trooper Shane Jacobs. “We spoke with (the miners) and let them know that they were standing on private property and that they were trespassing, and we let them know what can happen, but we made no arrests. At this time, we’re referring the situation to CSX. It’s their property and they have their own railroad police, so right now, we will assist CSX Railroad Police if we are needed.” Calls to CSX seeking comment were not returned.
According to WYMT’s Twitter account, the miners involved in Monday’s protest eventually moved and allowed the train to leave the mine. On Tuesday, however, the protest continued, with miners and their families standing on CSX tracks near Cumberland. A South Carolina church came to the site to provide food and other materials to those protesting. In one photo on the news station’s Twitter, protests can be seen playing the game cornhole in the railroad gauge. It was unclear at this time whether any other trains are planned to service the Cloverlick No. 3 mine.
In its bankruptcy filing, Blackjewel LLC and Revelation LLC listed estimated assets of between $10 million and $50 million while listing liabilities with between 200 and 999 creditors. According to the filing, the total estimated liabilities amount to between $100 million and $500 billion dollars. Blackjewel listed 27 “principal assets” in the fling. Among those assets are coal processing and rail loading facilities. The company owns mining operations served by CSX in Kentucky, Norfolk Southern in southwest Virginia, and BNSF Railway in Wyoming.
We have approximately from between eighty to ninety years of Natural Gas reserve as compared to over Five-Hundred years of Bituminous, Anthracite and sub-Bituminous coal’s found in the lower 48.
Natural Gas does not contain BTU’S (British Thermal Units) in excess of 10,500 BTU’S on an “as-received” basis. Coal’s from mines from Eastern Kentucky and Ohio and into the eastern coal fields normally contain BTU’S in excess of 12,000 As-Received plus. Bituminous coal from other coal producing States will vary in BTU’S as well, but a large percentage of coal’s produced will contain greater BTU’S as opposed to Gas with the exception of sub-Bituminous and what is termed “Brown Coal” mined primarily in Texas.
We must remember new coal-fired power plants will be built in the not too distant future, following potential power outages due to the focus and dependence on renewables.
Chuck Welsh, CEO – Castle Rock Carbon & Coal, Ponte Vedra, FL
USA Today reported that coal-fired electric plants are obsolete because the “price of producing power at natural gas plants and with wind and solar has declined so dramatically”:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/06/04/climate-change-coal-now-more-expensive-than-wind-solar-energy/1277637001/
“’We’re retiring a coal plant every month. Coal will all be gone by 2030,’” said Bruce Nilles, a managing director at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank in Colorado that focuses on energy and resource efficiency.”
I spent the majority of my career in management but; I’m with the miners here. The bankruptcy laws may allow garbage like this to occur but; that does not make it right.
have local friends who have protested against Peabody Coal in IL, about their pension. Peabody turned it over to Patriot, a sub and money seems to have disappeared.Peabody knows where the money went but won’t give it over to the people who deserve it and worked hard to get it. So I can understand the anger of these miners but CSX is not the one to blame. Hopefully they will get it resolved and paid, but not holding my breath, Friends have been fighting with Peabody for at least 4-5 years and nothing has happened. MY parents were union with Frisco, Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, different locals, but they could never really strike as government would not allow it. Truman threatened to throw them in Army during a threatened strike. But Dad never wanted to take a management job and leave his union, it was important to him to stay with the union.
Environmental laws are only one factor in the closure of many of these mines. With the development and use of fracking, natural gas has become more available as a cheaper fuel source than coal. Utilities have been converting many of their plants from coal to natural gas in large part because its cheaper.
Im not against the protest but I hope they realize that they are protesting and harassing people who have no control over the situation.
CSX doesn’t own the mine.
Wind and solar are heavily subsidized the only reason cost have dropped.
I’m not typically a huge union fan, but people should always be paid for the work they do, whether they need to be laid off or even fired for incompetence: everybody deserves the money they rightfully earn. Glad to hear they kept it peaceful, and hopefully the company and/or bankruptcy judge gets them what’s owed.
I am 100% for labor, I feel for these guys.
I’m not pro-union by any stretch of the imagination but you have to feel for these guys. They came to work, did their job and expected to be paid for their work. And, as Mr. Turon said they are now the last in line to get what’s owed them. The government of course is first in line and they’ll get theirs no matter what. And the kick in the pants is they are the ones that caused the problem in the first place.
But, blocking the trains from leaving the mine isn’t going to help any. When push comes to shove they’ll be arrested and charged with trespassing and then they’ll have a crime on their record which they don’t need right now. But the future looks bleak with the environmentalists in charge things everywhere will deteriorate quickly.
This awful. Who can blame them? Unpaid, out of a job, with bills to pay. This is not the Cowboy Way.
Sad — its always the workers who get left out in these types of situations — last in line behind all the other creditors.