Not a Job Creator, A Community Killer
“Today there are more florists in America than there are coal miners.” Instead of reaping benefits—jobs and social services—from the coal boom, coal states like West Virginia consistently rank poorest in the union with the lowest median household income in the nation and the lowest literacy rates.
How are coal communities fairing? Families and communities near mining sites are suffering from airborne dust and debris, floods, contamination of drinking water supplies, and the exodus of a generation of young people who are forced to find jobs elsewhere.
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With all due respect my father is a coal miner, and so was his father, and his grandfather. There are many people who work in the coal mines and if we terminated the use of coal it would put many many people out of work.
It is foolish, I believe, to believe that coal energy electricity doesn't create jobs. It creates lots of jobs - by making electric power inexpensive and available - business and industry couldn't exist without electricity, and the cheaper and more dependable electricity is, the more efficiently business can operate.
The CO2 from burning the coal is good for vegetation. It's plant food. That alone is a valuable side benefit.
Whatever you hear from Al Gore - regarding "climate" and CO2 - is WRONG.
Just plain old, out and out, WRONG
Since Re costs are mostly initial installation and maintaining them, they produce many more jobs, instead of making a few rich, many dead both mining and pollution, but nice outdoor jobs instead.
If you add the real costs in health, acid rain, radioactive emmissions into the price of coal, oil then RE is so much cheaper.
Even with these fossil fuel subsidies, wind, tidal, solar thermal generators, biomass can beat oil, coal in costs. I can easily build them at rates lower than coal plants/kwhrs output which is about $4k/kwhr now. But that doesn't include coal which will only go up in price, it's shipping, ect.
Now Fla has net metering if start up loans are available I'll be able to put 50 people to work in 6 months myself and many more as the business grows.
None of this takes new tech.
Instead of coal, the best energy source is that you don't use. Retro fitting homes, business with insulation, Ewindows, ect can make jobs now and save trhe cost of plants and their fuel. Last yr here we used 2% less electricity.
Jerryd
Unfortunately coal is abundant, and so is mining-equipment, therefore coal is cheap and miners are not well-paid.
But here's the flip-side: If coal mining were stopped, how many jobs would be lost? What would those miners do? If there is a better alternative, why aren't the miners taking it today?
This argument makes me wonder if the Rain-Forest Action Network cares about the miners the same way the mining company does: they can be used.