Austin, Tex. — Donald J. Trump made many important campaign promises on his way to victory. But saving coal is one promise he won’t be able to keep.
Many in Appalachia and other coal-mining regions believe that President Obama’s supposed war on coal caused a steep decline in the industry’s fortunes. But coal’s struggles to compete are caused by cheap natural gas, cheap renewables, air-quality regulations that got their start in the George W. Bush administration and weaker-than-expected demand for coal in Asia.
My father grew up in coal country, joined to the Navy to avoid the mines, and my grandfather was a coal miner who died eventually of complications from black lung, so I've always kept an eye on the industry. The stuff is just nasty to burn, even "clean" coal. Natural gas is going to nut-kick it out of business. But it is energy-laden...
Austin, Tex. — Donald J. Trump made many important campaign promises on his way to victory. But saving coal is one promise he won’t be able to keep.
Many in Appalachia and other coal-mining regions believe that President Obama’s supposed war on coal caused a steep decline in the industry’s fortunes. But coal’s struggles to compete are caused by cheap natural gas, cheap renewables, air-quality regulations that got their start in the George W. Bush administration and weaker-than-expected demand for coal in Asia.
My father grew up in coal country, joined to the Navy to avoid the mines, and my grandfather was a coal miner who died eventually of complications from black lung, so I've always kept an eye on the industry. The stuff is just nasty to burn, even "clean" coal. Natural gas is going to nut-kick it out of business. But it is energy-laden...
Trying to research conversion of plants to NG from Coal. Gut feeling is way cheaper than new plants, but not finding much info. Any thoughts? i think we can wean ourselves off coal, but bragging about putting Coal Miners out of Jobs was D-U-M-B.
"Start slowly, then ease off". Tortuga Golden Striders Running Club, Pensacola 1984.
"But even snake wrestling beats life in the cube, for me at least. In measured doses."-Lex
Carbon tax. Then let the industry figure out how they want to produce energy.
"The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all."
powerlifter54 wrote:Trying to research conversion of plants to NG from Coal. Gut feeling is way cheaper than new plants, but not finding much info. Any thoughts?
The third fuel-switching strategy is to repower the EGU,
that is, to modify the unit or the fuel delivery system to accommodate
the use of a lower-emitting fuel not previously
used. For example, a coal-fired EGU might be reconstructed
to burn natural gas, thus reducing the unit’s emissions rate.
Switching fuels is one of the most straightforward and
technologically feasible strategies for reducing emissions,
but it is not a trivial undertaking.
Lots of powerplants are multi-fuel plants, where for example they burn coal, but have gas turbines (like on a Spruance destroyer) as supplement. They can switch roles on who is prime and who is backup.
Live in south eastern Ohio - coal has been big here but over the last decade or two it has been declining. The coal here is relatively dirty which doesn't help. If some technology isn't developed I think coal is done for - both at the mining level and the burning level it just has a lot of health and environmental problems. And since the natural gas production has exploded so much around here - I think it's the kiss of death for coal.
Pinky wrote:Carbon tax. Then let the industry figure out how they want to produce energy.
The one you want and the one you'd get once it got out of Congress would be very different beasts I think.
The set of policy proposals that make sense and the set that might survive Congress have very little overlap.
I should add that at least some of the revenue from any carbon tax should be spent helping the displaced workers adjust. That won't happen either, but at least it's a nice thought.
"The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all."
