While Harlan County has yet to see the sharp economic downturn felt by much of the nation, it appears those negative effects could soon become a reality as hundreds of workers in the coal industry have been laid off at coal companies throughout southeastern Kentucky in recent months.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop said coal operators are becoming increasingly concerned with stiffer rules and regulation that could have an impact on the coal industry.

“One area that concerns all of Harlan County’s coal companies, is the spoil that results from the washing of the extracted coal. If regulations are too strict, those companies will not be able to have disposal areas,” Grieshop said. “However, in the discussion that I am hearing from the coal industry, most of the pressure is on mountaintop removal operations, which differ from contour mining and underground operations.”

Several coal companies around the region have laid off employees in the previous months. June layoffs include: 27 workers in Harlan County at a Massey Energy mine in the Coalgood community; 100 workers at Premier Elkhorn Coal Company's PE 4 and PE 5 mines in Pike County and at the Pike-Letcher County border and an unknown number of employees at Black Diamond Mining Company in Floyd County.

Job losses in July include 72 employees laid off at Pontiki Excel Mine in Martin County and dozens of workers at CAM Mining in Pike County.

In most of those cases mining operators blame the employee cuts on the decreasing demand and falling prices for coal.

“The coal industry is probably down about 20 percent in Harlan County compared to a year ago,” said Grieshop. “However, that is not real bad and is along the lines of what we typically see in swings from the high to low points. Long-standing companies have been very successful in maintaining their number of employees in the county.”

Grieshop said the coal industry has been vital to the county’s economy and added that he expects that to continue.

“Coal has always been the industry that drives our services sector, educational system and health care system. So without a doubt coal anchors our county’s economy,” he said. “Companies that have invested heavily in Harlan County are poised to continue the employment of their workers, while those companies who are speculative are not going to mine unless price of coal is right for them.”

According to the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, Harlan County coal companies extracted approximately $617,000,000 worth of coal, and paid $30,756,000 in coal severance taxes to the state during the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

“Coal has increased about $10 in price since May, and I look for it to be strong this summer due to the tremendous amount of demand in the south because of summer temperatures,” said Grieshop.

Although there is a push from many federal legislators to pursue cleaner energy sources, Grieshop said any move away from coal would take several years.

“The issue that underlies this is the great deal of concern about replacement energy sources. Those are relatively new technologies that are currently only impacting the energy market by less than 1 percent,” he said. “It will take decades if companies and the federal government decide to move away from coal. There will always be a place for coal.”