This segment of the story was “conveniently” omitted from subsequent stories, I think, to drive home the impact of 500 jobs lost. There’s most likely not going to be 500 jobs lost, probably not even a fraction of that, but what it did was make statewide news pick up the story and “endear” these rogue companies to the hearts of the average citizen. These companies know how to work the media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the coal industry.

Another statement can be found in the original press release which was also omitted from subsequent news stories. This very important statement is hidden amongst all the hysterical B.S. about environmentalists being to blame, and reads:

“In addition, DeIuliis said that the long-term economic viability of the Fola Operations remains uncertain due to adverse market conditions for the coal product mined there.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CONSOL-Energys-Fola-prnews-3929797112.html?x=0&.v=1

Could it be that Consol is just trying to find a scapegoat to cover-up their blatant disregard for the law? Surely not! Because we all know that Consol always has the best interests of their workers at heart. It’s too much for us to fathom to imagine that we can’t trust a huge multi-national coal corporation to simply do the right thing and obey the law. Yes, it must surely be the fault of those “out-of-state communist protesters”, as one recent WV State Journal editorial coined “radicals” of our ilk.

Bill Raney is demanding an endowed seat at the table for the industry like he had a busload full of kids wired to some C-4. It’s disgusting how they hold people in the crossfire.