Coal in the Trump age: Industry has a pulse, but prospects for jobs are weak (Steve Mufson, Washington Post)
Highlights:
'Clean coal technology' -- which does not exist and "doesn't actually make coal clean" -- is not even being considered by Trump budget.
Some coal supporters pin their hopes on the president supporting “clean coal technology,” which removes and stores carbon dioxide from coal-burning plants. That technology, which is costly and relies on federal aid, doesn’t actually make coal clean; it addresses climate concerns. [No, it does not make coal clean, well said. But it does not address climate concerns either, because 'it' does not exist at any viable scale in any viable time frame that might slow emissions, and because injecting CO2 underground does not address climate concerns.]
Trump, however, has shown no signs of backing that technology. His budget proposal for the Energy Department would cut $2 billion from a number of programs that help fund basic science as well as full-size, carbon-capture plants. ['Carbon capture plants' are not viable, economically or environmentally. See the story on the Kemper case.]Trump already rolling back the very weak environmental protections, such as Streamwater Protection rule:
Instead Trump, who has voiced skepticism about climate change, on Feb. 16 signed legislation rolling back a regulation on coal debris dumped in streams. At the signing ceremony at the White House were Kentucky’s senators, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, both Republicans; Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.); and Murray Coal executives and miners.
On Obama's war on coal? No, unemployment lower in coal country now then when Obama took office:
In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reports the unemployment rate in Clay County [Kentucky], one of the hardest-hit counties in the state’s eastern coal region, at 8.4 percent in December, half the rate it was at its peak in January 2010. It was 14.1 percent when President Obama took office.
Peabody, with close ties to WUSTL, is a crooked company, this is one of many:
The company still has to iron out disputes with stakeholders, especially bondholders who say that Peabody executives are in cahoots with hedge funds and making the business sound worse than it was last year so that it pays old bondholders less than they deserve. At the same time, now Peabody has an interest in sounding good enough to attract investors, the less fortunate bondholders say.
On the fact that coal industry profits rely on reducing the number of jobs, not increasing them:
“A lot of people conflate two primary things: the coal industry and coal jobs,” said Chiza B. Vitta, a coal analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “Even if the coal industry were to do better, that doesn’t translate into coal jobs. Over time the process has become more and more efficient, and they’re able to mine with fewer and fewer people working.”Decide for yourself,read the whole story here.
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| Bulldozers ready to work at Peabody Energy’s Somerville Central coal mine in Indiana. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News) |
