You know what really irks me though? Even if we didn't go green. Those 40,000 jobs are going to vanish. Coal doesn't grow like trees. That mine will empty one day and it's going to get shut down without warning, without any severance packages, the company is just going to run. There will even still be coal in the mine, it's just no longer cheap enough to mine it.
Historically, that's how it happens. Even in this day and age the moment a better mine opportunity is found, they're gone. They make the town dependent on them, they use the town in every way they can, they donate to the schools and municipal water supply, and then they vanish without warning leaving the town in the lurch. Happens with copper, happens with gas, happens with silver and it happens with coal.
At least the green movement will give you a date, a head start, and at least an iota of sympathy.