coalCoal is evil, until we are no longer mining it and collecting the millions of dollars it produces for schools and communities, then it’s even more evil. That’s according to Denver Post reporter Bruce Finley, trying to have it both ways, as usual, in a story hyped with purple prose and gasping that one missed tax payment by Peabody has catapulted a community into turmoil.

Because the entire coal mining industry has collapsed, Finley claims, Oak Creek didn’t get a $1.2 million tax payment in June robbing the citizens of fire protection, a library, school for 325 children, and a cemetery.

We can’t make this stuff up.

We’re not mocking any hardship that communities would suffer if coal is put out of business, for that is a very real and troubling concern.

But, we are contemptuous of the greenies, whose propaganda Finley gleefully prints without question, to drive coal out of business.

He writes of the hardship, seemingly with pity, but then switches gears quicker than a race car driver to tell us that coal companies should be paying even more royalties.

“That means Colorado taxpayers and coal-impacted communities are getting less than they should at a time when the communities need it the most,” Earthjustice attorney Ted Zukoski said.

Yes, this is the same Earthjustice that wants all coal “kept in the ground” and all coal jobs eliminated.

And where will communities then get the money it needs for schools, libraries and fire protection? They could care less.

Give us your money, go out of business, that’s the environmentalist’s motto.