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And the future economy will be powered by a mix of coal, nuclear, solar, wind, and other. Again... China is the biggest investor of nuclear energy. Who is buying up the world's uranium huh?
China controls about 17% of the world's coal supply, it's a relatively small amount compared to their consumption rate. They are already importing huge quantities of coal. At their current rate they will burn through their entire domestic supply within the next 3 to 4 decades. In that time frame they will have burned about what we will burn in 150 to 200 years given today's consumption rate. This rate of consumption is slowing but they are the point now they are burning as much as the rest of the world combined.
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They got the money and can print the money to rely less and coal.
They will burn every piece of coal they can get their hands on.
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Thanks for proving my point. Coal isn't so cheap once you stop subsidizing pollution and habit loss.
These costs are already included in the cost of production and paid for by the coal mining industry. You are attempting to criticize a program that is is enormously beneficial to the environment.
It is not President Obama's fault that the coal these people have been mining create serious environmental degradation when they are burned. This is also complicated by the observation that the huge coal mines in Wyoming produce lower sulfur coal at lower prices per unit of energy. Combining these results in a substantial decline in demand for Appalachian coal.
These folks are in a declining area because nobody wants the coal they can mine. They really need to find something else to do to earn a living or just move to where the jobs are. Unfortunately the industrialists are more likely to build a new factory in Asia instead of Appalachia and there are no extra jobs anywhere else.
Appalachian coal is the best coal in the world for making steel which you will need to manufacture your green energy world....also coal is used in cement you will need that too! Coal when processed also makes by products used in growing your foods,medicine and medical devices the very clothes you wear.
Your idea that no one whats our coal is dead wrong China and India are some of Norfolk Southerns best customers its the over bearing government that has coal and our nations security at risk with their regulations.
You have this arrogant way of believing you are right and everyone else is wrong. I will be fine but the majority of the poor you claim to card about will be in the dark because of the idiots war on coal.
Unless you are willing to use candles, burn firewood for heat and manually pump water, you are as complicit as those you castigate.
Sorry, sweetpea, but contrary to the coal industry's and Righties' anti-Obama propaganda electrical power plants have been converting to natural gas at a record pace. It's cleaner and cheaper to produce, use, and transport than coal. Other electrical power producers are using solar and wind power, so the specter of not having electricity is bull manure propaganda.
Natural gas is not cheaper than coal. What is driving these job losses is the threat of legislation that could make coal plants very expensive to run in the future. There is enormous capital expenses involved with these projects however they run nearly continuously for 50 years and beyond. This long life combined with the low cost of coal makes the cost per kWh very inexpensive.
If they are shut down prematurely or have to be continually upgrading them becsue of the whims of the EPA such as the recent mercury regulations did that drives up the cost per kWh. Carbon caps are of particular concern because the cost of that is unknown and may even be impossible to achieve.
Recently Duke Energy changed over the Coal using plant on the Yadkin to Nat. Gas. Now it turns out that there is a problem with the drinking water of about a dozen or so homes around the plant. It seems there is a court battle brewing over the coal plants ash ponds. The State Government (run by an ex Duke employee,GOP Governor) has accepted a deal to move the ash and is not the least bit worried about the quality of the drinking water.
This could be in a novel. See the John Grisham novel "Grey Mountain"
Coal it hurts in many ways from the employees to the consumers and it will turn out to beyond its end.
From 2008 to 2014 China's GDP has increased from 4.56 trillion to 10.35 trillion.
That is +5.79 trillion, or 126%.
And here is what capital city looks like:
My bad, I was basing that on the 2000 figure when it was about 1 trillion. It's a meteoric rise for both energy consumption and their GDP, about 1000% for the GDP. This part of the discussion was in response to a poster pointing out losses due to pollution. What I was pointing out was those losses were nothing compared to the rise in GDP.
Nobody is suggesting we allow cities to become like those in China, we are already well beyond that. There is limit to what you can do practically and at some point you have diminishing returns.
The mining companies are bonded and must reclaim the land. 50 years from now you will never even know they were there in most of these areas. You are simply being naive to think they can simply pollute.
In addition to that it's the coal mining industry that is funding reclamation of abandoned properties across the entire nation whether it's coal mine, iron ore, gold or whatever. That debacle in Colorado caused by the EPA was funded by coal mining.
I grew up in coal country, and I can say that you're 100% full of **** here.
When I was a kid the creek through town ran ORANGE with sulfur. There were signs warning you not to touch the water.
I've spent lots of time in abandoned strip mine areas four wheeling and shooting. The land isn't good for much else, and nobody wants to live there. They remove/flatten entire MOUNTAIN TOPS! The land is pretty well ruined once companies are done with it. And once the coal companies move on, there's nothing left of the local economy either.
But hey, at least a few fat-cats get wealthy off ruining your health and your land. Makes it all worthwhile as you die of black lung (like my step grandpa) on ruined land, huh?
This blind, proud, self-destructive ignorance is a big part of why I'll never come back to my home town for more than a visit. I'm not into killing myself so that other men can get rich.
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