There are reasons to lie. Ask any tobacco company. When the truth is known, there product begins to lose customers. They fought, and continue to fight, over the harm that tobacco does. They to this day are fighting in court to keep from taking responsibility for knowing what damage their product could do. And, then doing everything possible to keep that information under wraps, including lying before Congress.
So, why would coal companies continue to claim that if they are kept from their mountain top destruction (mtd) and longwall mining practices, jobs will be lost? One simply has to look at historical records of employment in the mining industry to know that jobs have declined sharply over the past 50 years. If miners aren't needed because the tops of mountains are blown off so as to expose the underlying coal, then that saves the company money. But, it of course means jobs are lost. If miners aren't needed because longwall mining machines are grinding the earth away to collect that seam of coal, the company saves money. And, again, jobs are lost.
Look again at the first sentence of the first paragraph. If Consol, and their ilk, can make people, especially those working in the mining industry, believe that EPA, or whoever is trying to kill their jobs, they won't pay attention to the facts. Mining companies are killing off jobs as quickly as they can by replacing miners with machines. Or, very high explosives. And, there is this little issue of farmers and ranchers losing their livelihood due to the loss of water caused by longwall mining and refuse from mtd being dropped into rivers.
There are many forms of lying. One is lying by omission. Consol, or someone like them, will leave out pertinent facts in any argument. Then there is overt lying. This one is generally something like, the Clean Water Act, if enforced, will take your jobs. But, both types of lying are, at their base, exactly the same. They are lies.
Jobs are not important to coal companies. Except as it concerns accounting. They are lying when they say they care about the jobs of miners.
