Originally posted by DimPrawn
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U.S. coal’s main problem has been cheap natural gas and renewable power, not a politically driven “war on coal”, and it will continue being pushed out of the generating mix. In the U.K., coal-firing shrunk to a miniscule 3.6 percent of total electricity production in the third quarter of 2016, and other European countries are finally – and belatedly – turning their attention to forcing the early retirement of coal plants. In India and China, tackling urban pollution is a top priority. China has just announced the suspension of plans for 100 new coal plants, including ones whose construction has already begun, and India’s Electricity Central Electricity Authority has said that after the current crop of coal-fired power stations under construction are completed, the country will need no new ones until 2027.
US Coal mining employment peaked at about 250,000, now down to about 80,000, due to strip mining and automation. Nothing Trump can do will change that. If he really cared about the miners, he'd stop the energy companies screwing their workforces out of their pensions (Hint: he doesn't and he won't).
Big Coal in big trouble as coal production costs rise | Grist
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