We need to stop natural gas too. All carbon extraction and burning must cease.
Coal is still around? Where?
“You move 16 tons and what do you get?”
Trump: I like it when the peasants get further in debt.
The only people who want this are West Virginians. Their entire economy is, and has been, so invested in coal that it’s a 3rd world country up there. Watch some of Peter Santenello’s videos, but you may cry like I did.
Who wants a coal plant?! Even conservative areas will scream NIMBY! NW Florida is as conservative as it gets and we’re going mad with solar farms.
It was invested in coal. Then there were technical improvements which let mine owners replace people with equipment. So coal mining is now a fairly minor source of employment.
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.
Let’s make Mercury Ingestion Great Again!!!
Yeah, it’s about fetishization of harm, not anything resembling good policy
Modern coal mining is a lean operation, not like the days of Blair Mountain and company towns and “coal country.” We’re talking about maybe tens of thousands of jobs, not millions, and we’re considering fucking over our entire biosphere to get there.
I can’t imagine anyone sane wanting this. There are some innovations that I can see people wanting to roll back, but not this one.
Unless you own a coal mine, or are owned by someone who owns a coal mine, this is stupidity from any angle.
Not to worry, he’ll just replace those expensive professional miners with free slave labor. Salvadoran gulags can only hold so many, after all.
