The coal industry is being destroyed by both "cheaper alternatives" and ruthless executives who put profits above safety, according to author Laurence Leamer.
In an interview with "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth on
Newsmax TV Friday, Leamer, whose new work,
"The Lynching" will be published in June, said Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy and so-called "king of coal" in West Virginia – recently
sentenced to a year in jail for a deadly coal mine collapse – once dominated the industry.
"He doesn't really care very much about safety, he doesn't care about the miners, he's just concerned about profits," said Leamer, who penned a book on Blankenship,
"The Price of Justice."
"Frankly, capitalism won't be destroyed by liberalism, by protests. It'll be destroyed by people that can say they're capitalists like this, but are really a negative force."
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Leamer, who once worked in a coal mine, also said the industry's struggles are not caused by "simply the Obama administration."
"When [coal mining] started you just get in there and mine these seams," he said. "Now you got to go back 2 or 3 miles. It's much more expensive to mine that coal. With fracking and natural gas, there's a lot cheaper alternatives to this."
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