Coal news and updates

Consol Energy Inc.’s shift from coal miner to natural-gas producer has pleased investors and kept the company out of bankruptcy. But it has come with a human cost.

 

Consol employs about a third of the roughly 8,900 workers that were on its payroll at the start of 2013, before the Pittsburgh-area company began selling off its mines, according to securities filings. Three years ago, nearly a third of its workers were United Mine Workers of America members. Now, none are in the union.

 

Though gas drilling is labor intensive at the onset, fewer workers are needed at production sites once wells are drilled and pipelines are built. That is very different from mines, which require hundreds or thousands of employees working for years to extract coal.

 

Source: WSJ.Com