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This graph here, courtesy of Appalachian Voices, tells half of the following story. It shows that mining jobs are going the way of your favorite dinosaur.

Less than 20,000 of them left in the USA, down from a high of 120,000 in 1950. Given the trend, it doesn't appear that the future of coal holds any new jobs or the promise of broad-based economic development.

Here's the other half of this story, a most illuminating map of the Central Appalachian coal basin.