Goodbye to Coal, and premature deaths, bronchitis, asthma, ozone, mercury in fish, arsenic in water...

Whether you like it or not, fracking has taken off, the energy industry is making money hand over fist and they’re inadvertently cleaning up the environment. Besides lower energy bills due to the glut of natural gas, American’s are seeing a lot of new jobs created around the country too.

Sadly, many are going to miss coughing up coal dust, acid rain, global warming, toxic air emissions, ash; sludge; 500 tons of small airborne particles which can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death; hydrocarbons which form ozone; 170 pounds of mercury (that) can make the fish unsafe to eat; 225 pounds of arsenic which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water. 

Not so fast…from the conservative online zealots at Newsmax:

Coal Miner's Wife: 'EPA has Absolutely Destroyed our Way of Life'
Coal country is hurting, and the people who live there want the whole nation to know it. Thousands of miners have been laid off this year across Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, many with little hope of getting their jobs back as power plants and the coal mines that once fed them shut down. Now the families, friends and business operators who depend on those miners are planning a multi-state show of solidarity they hope will be heard in Washington, D.C., and beyond. Huge crowds wearing miners' stripes and fluorescent "United for Coal" T-shirts will line up Oct. 13.

Like the industry surrounding the horse and buggy and fur traders, dirty energy like coal is obsolete. Thanks in part to climate change, science, and the following…:

The industry was already enduring a seasonal downturn after a warm winter … It faces growing competition from cheap, abundant natural gas … struggling with the EPA's crackdown on permitting for mountaintop removal mines, tougher clean-water standards, old inefficient power plants. 

Anyone have a problem with putting an end to that list? Ah, well, yes...

28-year-old coal miner's wife Tracy Miller of Keokee, Va. said, “the EPA has absolutely destroyed our way of life." Posts on every state's page are heavy with anti-Obama sentiment.

The media added to the perceived problem of EPA regulation:

Reuters is running the headline: "More US coal plants to retire due to green rules-study." But the group that authored the study says the additional expected retirements are "Due To Low Natural Gas Prices," not Environmental Protection Agency rules.