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from the what-do-I-do-with-all-these-burner-inserters? dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
U.S. greenhouse emissions fell in 2017 as coal plants shut
Greenhouse gases emissions from the largest U.S. industrial plants fell 2.7 percent in 2017, the Trump administration said, as coal plants shut and as that industry competes with cheap natural gas and solar and wind power that emit less pollution.
The drop was steeper than in 2016 when emissions fell 2 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.
EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler said the data proves that federal regulations are not necessary to drive carbon dioxide reductions.
[...] While Wheeler gave the administration credit for the reductions, which mainly came from the power sector, the numbers also underscore that the administration has not been able to stop the rapid pace of coal plant shutdowns.
[...] Natural gas releases far less carbon dioxide when burned than coal and a domestic abundance of gas has driven a wave of closures of coal plants. In 2017 utilities shut or converted from coal-to-gas nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants.
[...] The trend of U.S. coal plant shutdowns is expected to pick up this year, with power companies expecting to shut 14,000 MW of coal plants in calendar year 2018.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Sulla on Thursday October 18 2018, @05:43PM (14 children)
Trump didn't give a shit about the coal economy, what he cared about was getting a good economy and you don't do that by disenfranchising workers. Democrats have been telling those coal workers for decades that what we need to do is ban their business because we don't need it, but not give any sort of suggestion on what they can do instead. Trump came in and said that he would take those regulations away and bring in new jobs for those who are still displaced. Trump was able to reduce regulations but not increase emissions, get credit for one but not get additional blame for the other, and in the process get workers to be happy with him for at least trying and accepting that the workers concerns are valid. So those workers now go look for coal jobs, find out that even with no regulations there simply aren't coal jobs, but that the economy is so good they can get a factory job instead. These workers will be much more satisfied than they would have been under the traditional arguments from the Clintons that those jobs are bad and if the workers knew what was best for them they get some magical education and a tech job.
You can say I'm wrong, and thats fine, but we still won Pennsylvania.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 18 2018, @06:36PM (13 children)
Democrats have been telling those coal workers for decades that what we need to do is ban their business because we don't need it, but not give any sort of suggestion on what they can do inst
Coal is dying no matter what. It's all about cost.
The Democrat plan is to train these folks to work in an industry that isn't dying.
The Republican plan, per usual, is to deny reality and lie a bunch.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @06:42PM (4 children)
The republican plan is to scam a bunch and have the government do nothing.
The democrat plan is to scam a bunch and have the government do something.
The first actually works out better, since the government has an inverse midas touch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @07:13PM (1 child)
Or, and hear me out, you're unbelievably naive and brainwashed. "Gubbmint is da one true evil evil"
pfft, plenty to complain about but you choose a sound bite that just makes you look stupid?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @07:28PM
Nah, I used to think the US government was a force for good until I was employed by it for like 5 years. It is a force for wasting as many resources as people will let it get away with, good/evil is irrelevant to what it does.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @08:15PM (1 child)
> ... inverse midas touch.
A good friend (sadly died a few years back) called this the "sadim touch" -- everything you touch turns to shit. Maybe it's time to start a new meme?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @01:39AM
I like it.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday October 18 2018, @08:44PM (7 children)
There was no training. Back in the late 90s the Clinton's told these same folks that their jobs are going away, that it was a good thing, and that they should figure something else because this is the future. The Democrats never did anything to help these folks in PA (and elsewhere) to get any other type of employment, they just pulled the rug out from under them and told them they didn't need that rug anyways.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:02PM (3 children)
There was no training.
The Obama Idea to Save Coal Country [politico.com]
As part of the 2016 budget, the Obama White House created something called the POWER Plus plan specifically to help Appalachian communities that were getting left behind because of the rapidly changing energy market.
For Kentucky alone, that would mean $20 million a year for five years. The money would likely have gone to promote other businesses sectors like manufacturing and tourism and to retrain miners for new jobs like writing computer code.
Job training and community college put coal miners on a new path [pbs.org]
Coal miners in the heart of Appalachia face unemployment and uncertainty as the expansion of automation and natural gas threatens the industry that’s been an economic bedrock. But a West Virginia nonprofit matches displaced workers to sustainable jobs in agriculture or carpentry while helping them pursue associate degrees.
Awaiting Trump's coal comeback, miners reject retraining [reuters.com]
When Mike Sylvester entered a career training center earlier this year in southwestern Pennsylvania, he found more than one hundred federally funded courses covering everything from computer programming to nursing.
What’s Up in Coal Country: Alternative-Energy Jobs [nytimes.com]
The seminar was the last of three that week organized by Goldwind Americas, which is ready to provide as many as 850 giant wind turbines for a power plant planned in the state. The company was looking for candidates, particularly unemployed coal miners like Mr. Davila, to become technicians to maintain and operate the turbines.
Clinton is making coal country a generous offer, but it’s not buying [grist.org]
Last week, Hillary Clinton lost the West Virginia primary to left-wing challenger Bernie Sanders, 51 to 36 percent. She lost even though her climate and energy agenda would go easier on coal communities than Sanders’. She lost even though she’s laid out a comprehensive $30 billion plan that would provide suffering coal communities with health care, education, and job retraining.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:12PM
Plans to make miners into javascript programmers and nurses 20 years too late? No one is going to hire these dudes as programmers because they wont play the pc games. Another plan designed to fail, just like obamacare.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Sulla on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:40PM
Bill and the Dems kill the jobs, ruin the communities, then come back a decade later and say "hey we wanna help trust us". No wonder they didn't buy.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0, Redundant) by khallow on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:21PM
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:58PM (2 children)
> The Democrats never did anything to help these folks
Neither did the Republicans. Doing nothing is better than the screwing over the Republicans did. Their Trickle Down Economics that they've been flogging for decades has always been a thinly veiled excuse to take from the poor and give to the rich. The rich have not used that wealth to create more jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @12:32AM (1 child)
The inflationary monetary policy that they've been flogging for decades has always been a thinly veiled excuse to take from the poor and give to the rich. The rich have not used that wealth to create more jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @03:28AM
Woah now, don't burst any arteries round these parts.