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Machiavellian on 11 October 2017
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fatslob-:O said:

Machiavellian said:

I am not sure if CPP effects Natural gas as much as it effect coal.  From what I have read the real impact of CPP has always been coal and probably why the Senator is in Kentucky preaching about this saving their jobs.  Even still, this only just prolong their jobs as more companies look to move away from Coal to Natural Gas which has all the benefits and less of the issues coal has.

Also way before the CPP and even the Obama Administration Coal was on the decline and jobs in that market was dropping as well.  Now that most mines are looking for automation it will be like the Automotive industry where machines will take care of those manual jobs.

The key issue here is if America isn't on the for front of renewable energy then we will still be in the same place buying our products from another country. 

I believe there is no empathy is because Coal is considered bad for the environment but also for the health of the people that do the work, for the people that breath in the air like children, drink the water that is contaminated with mercury or deal with the effect in the atmosphere.  If the coal industry want to keep rolling then they need to put more effort in converting their plants to the many clean coal solutions but instead they do not want to put any money into it instead they want to continue business as usual.   

Prolonging the jobs for as much as 2 decades is a benefit to the younger generation of these vulnerable communities who are trying to reach higher educational standards to be able to compete ... (if we risk cutting coal out altogether then we also risk taking away the only option for social mobility for some families) 

Not only are we sacrificing social mobility for some of these communities but we lose our only realistic potential to energy independence to the likes of Canada which can charge as high of an asking price they want ... (Renewables can't meet all of our demands. Hydro power is nearly tapped out and solar panel installations cost thousands of dollars per skilowatt which makes solar power inaccessable so the best bet is wind power or doubling down on nuclear power) 

But there is empathy to be had for coal miner in being able provide for their family, right ? (giving all the money to Canada doesn't help them either since that just means less money for the coal miner's family) 

This doesn't prolong any jobs since they are going away with automation just like other industries have gone that way as well.  This is only perserving invested money to people in power willing to go for the buck and forget anything else.  If you are so concerning about all this vulnerable communities and social mobility, why are you not avocating the Coal industry implement more clean coal solutions to combat its dangerous effect on those same people lives. I believe the reason why is that you pretty much do not care as long as it doesn't effect you.  

As for empthy for coal miners, I definitely have that.  My solution is the one already said in this thread.  Put money in retraining them into the green tech which is gaining a lot of traction and probably will be the path forward.  Why put money and effort into the coal industry for those miners when their jobs are already getting replaced by automation.  Train them to do something else and I am sure the nation would be more acceptable to that.