Building Montana Economy Around Coal Exports Not a Productive Strategy

Coal demand, like all economic demand, is not a fixed immutable number

That relatively static number of coal mining jobs in Montana can be contrasted with the ongoing growth in total Montana jobs. Currently there are about 650,000 jobs in the Montana economy, 250,000 more than there were in 1980. That is a 63 percent increase, a quarter of a million new jobs added to the Montana economy while coal mining jobs hardly increased at all despite significant increases in Montana coal production. Those 1,200 coal mining jobs currently represent two-tenths of one percent of total Montana jobs.

By Thomas M. Power & Donovan S. Power

Full Story: http://flatheadbeacon.com/2014/09/19/building-montana-economy-around-coal-exports-productive-strategy/