etail 10,480 11,194 112,070 6,188 62 86 579 97Services 9,496 4,466 83,884 2,469 46 61 525 73Finance 868 2,059 13,116 1,138 7 41 48 57Insurance 931 1,838 6,042 1,016 3 40 51 82Real Estate 1,116 346 3,648 191 2 42 62 69As shown in Table A, mining is one of West Virginia’s top industries. It brings approximately “33,000” jobs to the state yearly and is responsible for about seven million dollars in sales. Mining has a tremendous influence on West Virginia’s economy. The state is the second largest producer of coal in the nation; however, surface mining only accounts for about a third of the coal production.West Virginia coal is mined in at least “30” of the “55” counties, from more than “460” mines. Since West Virginia became a state in 1863 almost “12” billion tons of coal have been extracted from its mountains. This coal production is very important to the United States’ economy as well as to West Virginia’s. It provides electricity and income; however, the industry is starting to devrease causing people to lose their jobs.In 1948, a record of “125,000” West Virginia miners were employed. The picture looks different now however. Even though more coal is being mined than ever before in this state, the total number of miners employed is less than “19,000”. The decrease in jobs have been blamed on technology.After all was said and done, and reviwing both the environmental and economical effects of mountaintop removal mining, and trying to come to one answer to say one was right and one was wrong, and one is a problem and one was not. I could not, depending on who you talk to, and who benefits from it one side will say it is good and will say it is wron...
