40% of U.S. electricity is powered by coal. The price of electricity has increased the last eight years as the coal industry was attacked by Obama and his regulations. 90% of Haiti's energy needs are met with coal. Remember all the "good" work done by the Clintons. The cost of coal for cooking has increased by nearly 150%. The are all kinds of places that could use a liberal supply of coal. FYI, China needs a lot of coal. Can you say trade imbalance?
Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
Obama made no bones about putting coal out of business in the US. And Dims are wondering why s/he lost the rust belt.
Gas is cheaper.
Originally Posted by wordup666
I have posted about this many times. When Obama was campaigning he put NG in the same category as coal especially from a CO2 perspective. As his Presidency moved along he went from "green" to "clean" and amazingly NG is somehow "clean." Obama flat out lies for political expediency.
Gas is cheaper, cleaner, and plentiful.
Trump should try to develop clean coal technology or just kill coal in favor of natural gas. Fucking Marcellus shale and the Permian Basin have all the natgas we need to generate electricity cleanly.
Also, he should kill windmills and solar - that shit will never work without subsidies.
Natural gas and petroleum products are all we need, and we have it all here in America. Fuck everybody else, including dirty coal.
Originally Posted by DSK
Do we have the infrastructure to burn NG instead of coal immediately? Obama was supposed to do that. He was supposed to build pipelines, NG powerplants and smart grids to make that viable.
What happened?
BTW, power generating windmills can kill 4200 bald eagles before they get fined. GE Windmills have killed more bald eagles than DDT ever did.
Lots of reactionary banter here, but no one has attempted to answer my original question:
...as a starting point in the conversation let's examine coal from its starting point -- the mining phase. Should the federal government fund various black lung disability programs as they have been doing for some time? This approach, in effect, subsidizes (billions of dollars) and attempts to offset the most intimate and negative health impacts of the coal industry.
So, should the federal taxpayers help the coal sector pay for the health problems experienced by front-line workers in their industry?
Originally Posted by Muy Largo
No, lets start from a common set of facts. Go ahead and link to them and start the debate. Black lung just isn't the problem it was 50 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalwo...pneumoconiosis