It's also about power. There's a good book called carbon democracy about how coal naturally led to the upsurge of democracy because it was labour intensive - he who can interrupt the flow of energy controls society and coal required a LOT of people to function.

Apparently the original shift to oil (started by churchill before ww1) was done in large part because it was far less labor intensive and so it took political power out of the hands of coal miners.

I can imagine how it felt to have income, camaraderie, identity and political power stripped from you all at the same time. Not great.