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maxrev17 6 hours ago [-]
I don’t get how it’s cheaper to dig up and transport coal than install a tonne of solar :s
Rebelgecko 5 hours ago [-]
The problem is the US doesn't have senators whose constituents make solar a key part of their identity (or if we do, those senators arwnt swing votes who need to be appeased and disproportionately porked up)
pibaker 3 hours ago [-]
From the way people talk about American coal miners, you'd think there are millions of them and they all live in the Appalachia. When the truth is there are only 45,000 of them in the whole country. Walmart employs over 10,000 people in WV alone. And it's not just in Appalachia, either — Wyoming produces twice as much coal as PA and WV combined.
Crazy how much of this really just boils down to identity politics for a small segment of coal miners.
im3w1l 12 minutes ago [-]
There are two kinds of jobs: export jobs and local jobs. I mean export in a loose sense - not necessarily crossing country borders, but rather something that is transported to other regions.
Export jobs like mining, an industry etc is the base that creates and support an economy of local jobs around them. Local jobs like walmart, hairdressers, gas station, laundromat etc. Every community must have export jobs in order to be able to trade for imported goods. You can't just take the coal mining away and keep the walmart.
Now there are exceptions: a tourist economy exports services that are normally local jobs. And some communities only exist because of subsidies and handouts. But they are exceptions.
klysm 5 hours ago [-]
It isn’t, but the whole night thing is a bit of a problem and storage isn’t there yet at grid scale, but it’s coming.
kadoban 4 hours ago [-]
Coal doesn't even compete with just solar, those aren't your two options.
Coal competes with literally everything else, and it loses to every single one of them. It's a terrible, terrible fuel. Burn natgas instead and you're already magnitudes better off.
Coal only exists today in the US because our politics is broken beyond belief.
toomuchtodo 4 hours ago [-]
Only ~15% of power in the US comes from coal currently, and it continues to decline as each of the last remaining coal generators are retired. Politics props it up, but it will eventually be gone. Five years maybe, ten years tops. Focus on forward looking tipping points for step change death spiral progress (when minimum coal mining, transportation, and generation minimum limits are breached).
Crazy how much of this really just boils down to identity politics for a small segment of coal miners.
Export jobs like mining, an industry etc is the base that creates and support an economy of local jobs around them. Local jobs like walmart, hairdressers, gas station, laundromat etc. Every community must have export jobs in order to be able to trade for imported goods. You can't just take the coal mining away and keep the walmart.
Now there are exceptions: a tourist economy exports services that are normally local jobs. And some communities only exist because of subsidies and handouts. But they are exceptions.
Coal competes with literally everything else, and it loses to every single one of them. It's a terrible, terrible fuel. Burn natgas instead and you're already magnitudes better off.
Coal only exists today in the US because our politics is broken beyond belief.
https://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coal-plant-map
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-trump-has-overseen-more...
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64924
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67405