Ohio State Legislature Buddies Up with Coal, People Rightfully Unhappy
There are those who think that our civilization will find a way to progress beyond the wanton destruction of our environment, and others who say that we’re doomed, i.e., that we’re past the point of no return. I happen to come down on the the side of hope and optimism; I trust that people’s basic decency and the positivity of the human spirit will eventually persevere.
One thing is certain, however: artificially propping up coal-fired power plants so as to bail out vested fossil fuel interests isn’t going to help. Lots of people in Ohio are furious about its legislature’s decision to pump their tax dollars into helping the coal industry survive. When you look at the graphic here, wouldn’t you say, “How ’bout we let coal die a natural death?”
Ohioans cite, quite correctly:
• The economics (the cost of generating electricity from coal has become noncompetitive, getting more so by the day, thus the bailout)
• The long-term environmental damage
• The myriad of health issues that coal plants cause
We can take care of the environment before it’s too late, but this isn’t the way to do it.
One of the most striking takeaways from the graph attached is to notice just how much Ohio’s total energy production has fallen in the past 2 decades.
In 2005, the state produced nearly 160 TWh of electricity. By 2019, that had fallen to ~120 TWh of electricity. So while coal generation fell by nearly 80 TWh, growth in natural gas only can be credited for ~40 TWh of that loss. Renewable generation is still in the grass for this resolution, and nuclear generation has held constant… which means that 40 TWh were just… lost.
Some of that is due to higher efficiency… and some of that is due to import of excess wind energy from neighboring states… but some of that will still factor out to be just lost.
As much as it is worth rejoicing for every MWh of coal production that is shuttered… there are many TWh of energy in that graph that represent reduced shifts at major manufacturing plants. That lost manufacturing would have been shipped to other countries, with lower environmental standards… So that portion of the loss of coal is not something to celebrate, because it represents additional coal being burned elsewhere with even lower emission controls.
That said, if Ohio wants to do more to keep their manufacturing competitive, it would be far better served to subsidize and support heavy federal subsidies for renewable energy… and drive down the cost of energy that way. Trying to prop up the coal industry is just disgusting policy…
But it’s worth remembering those TWh lost to reduced manufacturing. That is not a good thing.
The state government needs to do something to protect those manufacturing jobs. They just shouldn’t be doing THAT.
I noticed the decline in overall consumption too, and I realized it came from manufacturing, but I had neglected to it through, i.e., where did it go?
I’m not an expert in this, but I believe the U.S. will never recover its capacity in manufacturing; I can’t see any mechanism by which that’s possible. The replacement of jobs will have to come from somewhere else. One can only hope that’s cleantech products and services.
Craig,
I think we will continue to see an increase in net manufacturing production, as we have seen over the past 9 years.
But manufacturing jobs will continually be reduced during that same span. Think about Tesla. They put a manufacturing plant in a very high-wage area, because they didn’t need blue-collar people to work an assembly line, they needed highly sophisticated engineers and programmers to create an ultra-efficient automated assembly line. I believe that fewer than 500 people are employed by Tesla’s core manufacturing facility, and they are responsible for every aspect of the manufacturing chain..
We will continue to make stuff here, it will just require fewer and fewer people to be involved in that manufacturing.
The problem that the industrial Midwest is facing is that the infrastructure there is older machinery that requires more labor. Those must be offshored or subsidized in order to be competitive.. But the new manufacturing that has been moving in is quite competitive, because with a few engineers and some good software, a modern production facility can outpace what would have been a hundred blue-collar workers, producing better parts with less scrap.
It’s progress, and it’s relentless… and it’s completely devoid of mercy.
Craig,
Refreshingly, a lot Glenn’s analysis is correct.
Heavily subsiding unsuitable, unreliable, uneconomic renewable energy is social and economic disaster.
It takes time, capital and a great deal of effort to create the sort of infrastructure that can retrain workers, invest in new industries and remain economically competitive.
Your callous disregard for the plight and welfare of “blue collar” workers (who you obviously despise and regard as ‘deplorables’)comes with great risk.
The energy hungry industries of the future, as well as traditional industries of the present, increasingly require reliable, massive “Power on demand” generation.
This is best, and most economically achieved utilizing fossil and nuclear resources.
For the USA, the most economical of these resources is Coal and natural gas. Although At the huge investments have been made to modernize ancient coal plants by converting to natural gas, for the US this is a very short sighted solution.
Currently Natural gas is relatively cheap and plentiful, however soon, US utilities will encounter steep increases in the of natural Gas with increased demand for US LPG from Asia and Europe. In addition, the price of natural gas will also increase as demand for feed-stock from the fertilizer industry surges.
Wiser nations such as Japan, South Korea, India and the strategically astute Peoples Republic of China, have heavily invested in Clean(er) Coal technology. The folly and intransigence of Western governments to stubbornly ignore advanced (thorium) nuclear, or Clean Coal technology for political/ideological reasons is staggeringly obtuse and irresponsible. The result will weaken the West and result in catastrophe.
Industry, both old and new, will migrate to locations which provide the cheapest energy.
New industries such as data centres, are very energy hungry. These industries need must have fail safe ‘power on demand’ genration. (Bitcoin trading alone can account for as much consumption as entire nations the size of Denmark !
In the future, who ever controls energy generation will have enormous strategic advantage over rival nations.
At the moment, the Asians are easily winning the race. Asian governments don’t care about political-ideological concerns, they are able to see the problems and solutions objectively, without any extraneous considerations.
It’s time advocates (like yourself) “manned up” and objectively debated the basis of your irrational hatred of “Clean(er) Coal technology. Your owe it to yourself, your fellow American, and the environment.