Are there no more miracle products to be gotten from that dirty, black rock ?
actually, oil and gas employs many more than coal mining
Soros seems to think so, he's buying big interests in the coal companies that are folding, some of the companies or even the whole company.
Read up on the history of Ohio. They had a natural gas boom that cut the use of coal down to nearly nothing other than for making coke to feed the still mills and after a few decades the gas ran out the the mines in Southeast Ohio and West Virginia started doing well again.
As for dirty, black, rock :
Says Phoebe Snow about to go upon a trip to Buffalo "My gown stays white from morn till night Upon the Road of Anthracite"
“Are there no more miracle products to be gotten from that dirty, black rock ?”
I think coal is still the best fuel for energy production, you can’t stockpile 30 days of natural gas on site.