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Can someone explain what this statement from President's Trump's speech means?
In a previous thread conservatives made it very clear to me that they were not against what is known as renewable energies but more so the government subsidies they receive. I'd like to hear more on what peoples thoughts are on the "beautiful, clean coal" remark.
Its misdirection. There was no real war on coal, coal simply became economically a bad choice, frakking has released a ton of natural gas that is cheaper then coal. The attempt to call it "clean coal" is as moronic of a marketing attempt as you might suspect.
Its misdirection. There was no real war on coal, coal simply became economically a bad choice, frakking has released a ton of natural gas that is cheaper then coal. The attempt to call it "clean coal" is as moronic of a marketing attempt as you might suspect.
THIS^
nothing more, coal never has been clean, but that has nothing to do with it's decline. Good old American Enginuity has made oil and gas extraction much less expensive, and coal is no longer competitive.
Note: This is coming from a Trump disliker and a "Lib". Fact is that Oil and Gas (most of which is fracked) is a better choice. I'd like to see us go more and more to renewables, but that is a long road and we'll need our fossil energy for decades as we make the transition. I'm OK with that.
Can someone explain what this statement from President's Trump's speech means?
In a previous thread conservatives made it very clear to me that they were not against what is known as renewable energies but more so the government subsidies they receive. I'd like to hear more on what peoples thoughts are on the "beautiful, clean coal" remark.
If I'm not mistaken that beautiful clean coal means that we are mining coal again and exporting most of it.
The war on energy was regulating coal out of existence and forcing generation plants to rework to run on NatGas, which has been done. These plants aren't ever going to burn coal again, at least not as long as we are swimming in the stuff (NG).
Under Trump's admin, we are becoming a net exporter of energy (coal, natgas, oil, byproducts...etc.) rather than being an importer. It's the new energy independence initiatives.
It means that Trump supports coal obtained by the hellishly destructive mountaintop removal method, which has laid waste to untold acreage in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, western Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. It means that he supports selling such coal to China and bragging about exporting it.
It means that he has absolutely no understanding of or interest in or concern about the true cost of such destruction.
Take a look at these areas on Google Earth if you are not familiar with mountaintop removal, which is just what it sounds like. Tops of the oldest mountains in the world are blown off by dynamite in order to get to the coal, and restoration is pathetic, with handfuls of non-native grass seed and heavy doses of fertilizer being scattered among the bare blown apart rocks and heavily bulldozed level shelves left when the mountaintop is gone.
There is no way to restore the rich and highly diverse forests which once grew there, nor can the water be adequately cleaned of the arsenic, lead, and other toxins which are exposed by the blasts and which leach into the groundwater. This practice has led to boulders rolling downhill into houses below and killing little children as they slept in their beds.
Yet mountaintop removal coal mining remains legal, and Trump terms it "beautiful".
It is used to extract coal from veins which are too small to be mined by other methods, such as deep mining or even strip mining, another extremely destructive practice. That coal was left by the deep miners because it was viewed as unreachable and/or economically unfeasible to mine. It still is economically unfeasible to mine for the domestic market, which has been heavily impacted by natural gas, but there are still markets abroad - for now. China is cleaning up its act and any sales there are likely to be very short-term.
Trump was playing to the crowd, specifically, to his WVA base, which seems to be willfully blind to the clear indications of what is coming in a very few short years.
If I'm not mistaken that beautiful clean coal means that we are mining coal again and exporting most of it.
The war on energy was regulating coal out of existence and forcing generation plants to rework to run on NatGas, which has been done. These plants aren't ever going to burn coal again, at least not as long as we are swimming in the stuff.
Under Trump's admin, we are becoming a net exporter of energy (coal, natgas, oil, byproducts rather than being an importer. It's the new energy independence initiatives.
You write as if exporting coal is a good thing. It is not. Read my previous post. Appalachia's mountains are being destroyed in order to sell coal to China and other third world countries. The game isn't worth the precious candle.
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