President Trump has painted himself as the savior of America's coal industry and the countless miners who have been crushed by its demise. "For those miners, get ready because you're going to be working your asses off," Trump said in a May 2016 speech in front of a crowd holding up "Trump digs coal" signs. While Trump has moved to rip up regulations burdening the coal industry, his most senior economic aide doesn't look like he's jumping on the coal train. "Coal doesn't even make that much sense anymore as a feedstock," Gary Cohn said, aboard Air Force One on Thursday, referring to raw materials that get converted into a fuel. Cohn, who serves as director of the White House National Economic Council, instead praised natural gas as "such a cleaner fuel" -- and one that America has become an "abundant producer of." While Trump rarely talks up the potential of renewable energy, Cohn sounds like a fan. "If you think about how solar and how much wind power we've created in the United States, we can be a manufacturing powerhouse and still be environmentally friendly," Cohn said. Cohn's comments stand out, but not because they are inaccurate. They jive with what energy experts have been saying for some time. It's just that Cohn's comments sound like ones that were written by President Obama's speechwriters, not Trump's. The White House didn't respond to questions about whether Cohn's remarks signal a shift in Trump's energy and environmental policies. http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/26/investing/trump-cohn-coal-paris-climate-deal/index.html
Trump added 65k jobs in coal mining while putting about a million epa workers out of work.....we need coal, not clean air or water!!!! Cue dueling banjos!!!
Trump understood what Clinton didn't: If you want their votes, you have to lie to people who's jobs are going to disappear due to changing circumstances. It's a shame it has to be that way, but desperate people don't want to hear about the new economy and retraining programs.
Yeah. How does it not make sense? I mean next your going to tell me they don't put people in debtor's prison, women can't vote and 1 out of every three infant die at birth?! What kind of Brave New World do we NOT need coal in! Damn you all to hell!
Well, she called the racist/sexist Trump supporters deplorables, not all of them. Which was fair, but I agree--not smart politically.
Trump will claim he's the green energy president and Denny will post random graphs to show how solar and wind did better under Trump than it did under Obama.
I find this article to be incredible stupid. Perhaps even dishonest. Coal contains more BTU per pound than any other fuel other than Oil , Hydrogen and U235. About twice that of Madrone wood, the best you will find in this part of the Country. Not much sense at all burning oil instead of coal in fixed location applications. The other fuels like Gas and Oil are readily portable fuel for mobile power use. Oil has many other useful purposes, so burn it as a fuel is rather wasteful. I don't at all believe there is a canned answer to what fuel to use for each purpose in all locations where the power is needed. If you truly want to go green, we should as a Nation treat the Nuclear Power as an infrastructure base power source and set up a system of hierarchical production such as; Produce Steel in Electric Foundries Using the Nuclear Power to feed the grid. Produce Hydrogen for use as a mobile fuel (autos), by product of the Steel production process. Produce Oxygen for the environment and domestic needs, by product of the Steel production process. Portland's Electric Steel Foundry did this for years using hydro power. They were also the experts at producing parts for Reactors in the Nuclear industry before the environmentalist took control of the Nation. Perhaps they didn't trust the science. It is likely Aluminum production can be upgraded as above also. We let these products be produced elsewhere and they use coal. Perhaps we even ship it to them. WTF? How green is that system? We have the knowledge, but too many amateur greenies with partial science knowledge erect the impediments to progress.
China finally has changed over at least on an industrial level....I traveled through the country twice in the 80s and it was a gas chamber....those times are changing now....I see Trump's coal lobby as glorified industrial era bluster. Coal has uses....but heating with coal and oil are dated practices. I'm all for responsible use of nuclear energy for clean energy if it's handled properly. I'm all for using the tides to generate power like New Zealand does but for some reason people who have ocean views on the west coast don't want to look at the turbines while watching the sunset.
I am not too keen on having to navigate around them either. The crab traps are more than enough challenge.
Rod based nuclear is old and unsafe tech. The new pellet based nuclear is much more safer and economical. The majority of operating nuke plants in the country are unsafe and need to be shut down. Personally I believe we should open bidding for new generations of nuke plants to be built and run by private companies but locate them on some of the giant military bases in Nevada or Utah. Use that as a hub to build out a new electrical grid. Our current grid is very inefficient, vulnerable to attack and breakdown.
I agree with using new designs, especially to eliminate the need for cooling pumps and emergency back up power. A proper design would utilize the heat for secondary processes. The heat would flow naturally with cooling water much like the old fashion hot water tank and heating coils in the wood stove. No pump needed. The grid is another matter, but the short version is run backward with new plants in strategic location and these could well be bases as you suggest, at least some. The grid needs much less upgrade this way.
