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News :: Miscellaneous |
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WILL-TV presents “Invisible Hand: The Deindustrialization of Southern Illinois” |
Current rating: 0 |
by Greg Boozell
Email: gboozell (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: (312)738-1400 |
17 Sep 2001
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The new documentary “Invisible Hand: The Deindustrialization of Southern Illinois” traces the human impact of mine closings, and breaks down the complex interplay of labor and environmental factors at work in the dismantling of a region’s economy. WILL-TV 9/23/01 6:00 PM |
Laid-off miners in the downstate Illinois town of Marissa can watch as freight trains snake through their town, overflowing with the low-sulfur western coal that put them out of work.
The new documentary “Invisible Hand: The Deindustrialization of Southern Illinois” traces the human impact of mine closings, and breaks down the complex interplay of labor and environmental factors at work in the dismantling of a region’s economy. “Invisible Hand” plays Sunday, September 23 at 6:00 p.m., and Thursday, September 27 at 1:00 am and Sunday, September 30 at 5:00 a.m., on WILL-TV channel 12.
“For Sale” signs abound on the front doors of houses in Marissa. Former miners go to work in the new prisons that are replacing coal companies as the major employers in the region. Illinois has lost thousands of well-paid mining jobs since the Clean Air Act went into effect in 1990 and made high-sulfur Illinois coal illegal to burn without “scrubber” technology to clean the emissions.
“The technology is available to burn Illinois coal cleanly,” says John Thompson of the Illinois Environmental Council. “The power companies just aren’t implementing the technology.”
“Invisible Hand” producer Greg Boozell is an independent videographer.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
background information on
Invisible Hand: the deindustrialization of southern illinois
by Greg Boozell
In the early 1920’s, there were over 100,000 coal mining jobs in Illinois. Today only about 5,000 remain. While many may view coal mining as an outdated 19th century enterprise, over 56% of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal today.
Economic and political factors, as well as environmental regulations have contributed to the loss of the mining jobs in Illinois. Although some have reduced this to a choice between jobs and clean air, the actual conflict is more complex. In Illinois, the battle is between electricity generating utilities on one side and coal miners and environmentalists on the other.
The implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1990 contributed significantly to the demise of Illinois coal mining. In order to comply with the Act, Illinois power generating utilities needed to significantly reduce the sulfur emissions of their power plants. To achieve this, these corporations had several options: 1) install clean-coal scrubber technology to remove pollutants; 2) decommission the coal-fired plants and build new plants which would burn a more environment friendly fuel like natural gas; or 3) substitute an alternative lower-sulfur coal.
The latter was adopted by most Illinois power generating plants. Lower sulfur coal is mined in the western U.S., primarily Wyoming and Montana. Although burning western coal results in lower sulfur emissions, scrubbed power plants are much cleaner. Scrubbed power plants also make it possible to burn Illinois coal. “Our coalition with the environmentalists seems strange,” said Joseph Angleton, President of District 12 of the United Mine Workers (UMWA). “But we’re trying to get legislation passed to lower sulfur standards. By lowering sulfur standards you might be able to at least level the playing field where you had to scrub coal no matter whether it was western coal or whether it was Illinois coal. We think if that takes place we’ll take our chance in the market place.”
Local environmentalists prefer the installation of clean coal technologies to burning western coal. “Many of us believe the coal plants are going to be with us a long time,” said John Thompson, Director of Clean Air Programs, Illinois Environmental Council. “We are not going to be shutting them down in the near future and therefore it makes sense to make them as clean as possible.”
The shift to this western coal has been devastating for coal miners in southern Illinois. It has meant the elimination of thousands of mining jobs in the southern third of the state. Pres. Angleton adds, “For every coal mining job lost, the Department of Labor says there are four other jobs that are lost. When you look at high paying jobs especially in rural areas in Southern Illinois, it affects the school systems with the property tax. It affects the people who own the car dealerships, the furniture stores, it affects everything. The cumulative effect is really more than anyone would ever dream.”
Marissa is one southern Illinois town directly affected by the loss of mining jobs. Incorporated in the late 19th century, Marissa grew with the coal mining industry. Once the home of miners of several area coal mines, the closing of the Marissa Mine in 2000 marked the end of coal mining in the immediate area. “These people have pride but they also had a standard of living and uh, and they can’t keep that standard of living. That’s just a fact. You know, the jobs around here don’t pay what the coal industry does,” said Mayor Jerry Cross.
While EPA regulations are often portrayed as onerous and costly to corporate America, current law exempts the oldest coal-fired power plants from the EPA’s most stringent air quality standards. Because of EPA regulations, Illinois has fewer scrubbed power plants than any other state in the U.S. John Thompson, Director of Clean Air Programs, Illinois Environmental Council stated, “What most people think is that the environmental regulations that govern the operation of these plants really is designed to protect the environment. It’s true to an extent but what they really do is protect the utilities. It gives them an enormous license to pollute. They emit thousands of tons of pollutants each year without having to install the kind of modern pollution control equipment that you find not only in other states but is widespread and common in Japan and Germany and Europe and in other industrialized countries. We’ve simply chosen a path that grandfathers these old plants and gives them a license to pollute.”
Although there is a dearth of scrubbers on Illinois power plants, ironically the state of Illinois has spent millions of tax dollars developing clean coal technologies. While the technologies exist to clean the air and protect Illinois mining jobs, Federal and State officials have lacked the political will to require the implementation of these innovations in Illinois.
Support from the government has taken the form of job retraining programs for former coal miners. “Their answer is to come in and give some money to retrain people to find a different job,” said Marissa Mayor Jerry Cross. “And that’s good. Don’t get me wrong. You know that’s good that they do that. But that’s not the answer – these people want their jobs. They want good paying jobs. They don’t want to be trained to have to leave the area.”
Ty Becker President, President of UMWA Local 2412 adds, “They are finding it very difficult now after losing their job for a lot of them, 20, 25, 30, 35 years in the coal mines. Basically, that’s the only job that they have ever known. Its like they are coming out of high school all over again and having to make a decision on which way they are going to take their family to at age 50, 55 years old. Too young to retire, uh, but really too old to be employed at a very good job anywhere else.”
“We knew this clean air act was coming in 1990. And in the summer of 2000 we begin to ask the question, how can we burn Illinois air coal and keep clean air? You know, we waited way too long,” said former miner, Lendell Moyers, “The technology is there. I’m convinced of that. They are using it all over. I just don’t understand why we are not using it here.”
“Invisible Hand” recounts the decline of coal mining in Illinois and the toll it has taken on the town of Marissa. Coal mining has been a way of life in Marissa for decades and this video shows some of the social effects resulting from the collapse of the coal industry.
Greg Boozell is the producer of “Invisible Hand”. He can be reached at gboozell (at) hotmail.com.
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