Coal mining is the epitome of predatory capitalism—coal miners face significant dangers and the ore possesses disastrous environmental consequences, but the industry is able to buy off politicians to promote coal production through things like deregulation.

John Buell, Coal and Predatory Capitalism, the Bangor Daily News (Maine), https://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/27April 27, 2010

Just days after the worst U.S. coal mine disaster in a quarter-century, the World Bank approved a $3.75 billion loan to South Africa to build one of the world’s largest coal-fired electric power plants. Though both South African and U.S. environmentalists had urged the U.S. to vote no, abstention was the best they could achieve. Coal plays an outsized role in our politics. Just how and with what consequences are questions that must be addressed if we are to enjoy sustainable growth. Coal’s advocates argue that it provides the cheap electricity that can lift the poor both here and abroad out of poverty. Coal, however, is far less cheap than its advocates suggest once a full accounting of its social costs is included. Over the last century, mine accidents have killed more than 100,000 miners. Since miners’ compensation seldom reflects the job’s risk, miners and their families in effect subsidize our cheap energy. The effects of coal mining, however, do not stop with death from mine disasters. A family friend, Sarah Vekasi, an ecochaplain in West Virginia, put the case eloquently after the tragedy: “Imagine if the national press came in and camped out at our local elementary school every time we reported that 30 men in our community were diagnosed with Black Lung and 30 children have missed an inordinate amount of days of school due to unidentifiable illnesses caused by drinking polluted water and breathing toxic air? This is a national emergency and the issues reach further back than just how this particularly horrible mine explosion happened to how a single industry has dominated this region and what we, as a national and re-gional community are going to do to change that.” Economic domination and environmental degradation may worsen as jobs in coal country become scarcer. Mining corporations resort to job blackmail and routinely buy political influence. Coal mining today reflects and is part of a transformation in U.S. capitalism from a system of regulated and countervailing powers to what economist James Galbraith labels predatory capitalism. In the wake of President Ronald Reagan’s assault on the air traffic controllers, Massey Energy joined the growing group of U.S. corporations that used every technique, legal or illegal, to bust its unions. Neither regulations nor unions were to limit profits. The strategy paid off, giving Massey mines liberty to slash wages and flout safety rules. Massey CEO Don Blankenship is right out of Vince Lombardi’s playbook where “winning isn’t everything; it is the only thing.” Lives rather than football games, however, are at stake here. Blankenship’s notorious memo instructing mine superintendents to put coal production ahead of all other considerations encouraged cut-ting corners on worker safety at every turn. Unionized mines are safer because miners who spot and seek to address safety concerns cannot be arbitrarily fired. Preventing future disasters and addressing coal’s environmental impact depends on activism on several fronts and across several national and ideological boundaries. Even with a sensible energy policy, some min-ing will continue. It is imperative that the right of miners to unionize be protected. Mine standards must be strengthened and enforced.