Writing for today's Wall Street Journal at page A13, James Areddy unearths astonishing facts about Chinese coal production and mining fatalies.
Consider that Chinese coal production is "...half of the global total and 3.5 times that of the next biggest coal producer, the US, according to the BP Statistics Review of World Energy." Despite that massive domestic production, China's appetite for coal exceeds its ability to produce it, and China now imports coal from the USA, Indonesia, Australia and from around the world. Wow!
Areddy then reports that China had "around 2,000 miners" die on the job in 2011 but that was a big improvement from 3,786 deaths in 2007, and 7,000 in 2000. By contrast, 17 miners died in US mine accidents in 2011.
In Pennsylvania, there have been no deaths at our mines for more than 2 years, a tremendous credit to the coal industry here, its employees, the UMW, and state and federal regulators.
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