Coal has been displaced by cheap and plentiful natural gas and the rapid growth of wind and solar energy — forces that President Trump will struggle to do away with.
Somewhat related: I recently took a tour through the now-defunct local coal plant. Before 1990, there were 4 teams of 20 people each running this single coal plant.
Right now, just 4×5 people run power generation (mostly fossil gas, but also some solar, wind and a large battery), although actually the plants are designed to work safely for 72h without manual intervention.
You absolutely shouldn’t do this, but one Japanese operator was caught running a nuclear plant where the only people on the night shift were cleaners, who hadn’t even been told what their radiation badges were. They got a minor fine.
Somewhat related: I recently took a tour through the now-defunct local coal plant. Before 1990, there were 4 teams of 20 people each running this single coal plant.
Right now, just 4×5 people run power generation (mostly fossil gas, but also some solar, wind and a large battery), although actually the plants are designed to work safely for 72h without manual intervention.
You absolutely shouldn’t do this, but one Japanese operator was caught running a nuclear plant where the only people on the night shift were cleaners, who hadn’t even been told what their radiation badges were. They got a minor fine.