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Why has the world started to mine coal again? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

286 comments fedilink hide all child comments

With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Imo, the US needs to work toward nuclear usage being 90-95% instead of using coal. There's still a need for natural gas but it can be minimized

Why? Wind and solar are cheaper, faster to build and don't produce toxic waste. They can easily cover most of the energy needs. Or technically all of it, once you start using any overcapacity for hydrogen production (which is needed for carbon neutrality anyways).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here in Texas, we use wind and solar a lot. That's why in 2021 when it froze, we had zero power. The wind turbines were seized from the freeze and snow covered the solar panels. We had dropped our coal production until we had to suddenly go to 100% utilization.

And with it being texas and hardly snowing, we don't have infrastructure in place for the roads. There's no snow plows, road salt, tire chains, etc..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think that was propaganda.

The shitty electrical grid and the gas plants that couldn't operate in winter failed. Wind power prevented worse blackouts as they kept working.