12,089
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
==History==
Coal mining in Utah began in the 1850's, under the aegis of the Mormon church; however, with the completion of the Union Pacific railroad in 1869, and the competing Rio Grande railroad in 1883, the industry became controlled by these tow companies, and coal mining increasingly drew large numbers of Italian, Chinese, Greek, and Mexican immigrants to the otherwise highly homogenous state.
Annual coal production had reached about 1.5 million tons by 1900; in that year, the Scofield mine disaster killed about 200 miners in Scofield, UT (the fifth-worst coal mining disaster in U.S. history), which spurred unionization. Repeated strikes in 1901, 1903, 1910, and 1922 did little to break the power of management; the workers' safety concerns went largely unheeded, resulting in the Castle Gate mine disaster in 1924 (which killed 172 miners in Castle Gate, UT). Only after another national strike in 1933 was full unionization achieved by the United Mine Workers, which was subsequently granted legal recognition through Pres. Roosevelt's New Deal labor legislation. Meanwhile, the industry was growing rapidly: production reached 6 million tons in 1920, and more than 7 million tons during World War II.
However, by the mid-1960's, production had fallen to about 4 million tons - mostly due to the elimination of coal-fired locomotives, which severely impacted coal mining throughout the western U.S. However, during the 1970's, rising oil prices - along with the Clean Air Act, which drove an increase in demand for Utah's low-sulfur coal - sparked a boom in Utah coal mining. Annual production rose dramatically to 13.2 million tons in 1980, and then continued to climb to 22.1 million tons in 1990 and 26.0 million tons in 2006.<ref>[http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/coal/0576.pdf State Coal Profiles], Energy Information Administration, pp. 91-8.</ref><ref>Nancy Taniguchi, [http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/c/COALMINING.html Coal Mining in Utah], Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994.</ref>
The 1970's boom in Utah coal mining also drove a boom in coal-fired power plant construction. Out of Utah's 5,080 MW of coal-fired generating capacity, 93% comes from plants built since 1974 - unusual in the U.S., where the median coal plant was built in 1964.<ref name="EIA"/>
SW: →History: moved section
On April 1, 2010 Peaceful Uprising, an environmental groups based in Salt Lake City, launched a campaign against the [[Kennecott Minerals]]' coal-fired power plant that located in the Salt Lake Valley. According to company documents the plant emits at least 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Peaceful Uprising, through protests and direct non-violents actions, hopes to force the company to end coal burning. The group argues that the plant is already set up to burn less toxic fuels like natural gas.<ref>[http://www.peacefuluprising.org/ Peaceful Uprising Press Release] Peaceful Uprising homepage, accessed March 26, 2010.</ref>
==Legislative issues==
