Environment

[Ian]

Originally Posted by detbuch

That is the market working (in spite of regulations). That would happen naturally, without federal regulation. And Trump's EO relaxes Obama's regulations on natural gas and fracking as well as on coal. So those industries can expand, hire more, and produce more energy, including electricity, and help to lower prices.

And technology making coal mining more efficient is a historical trend, not just a reaction to Obama regulations. And, even though tech advances reduce the need of manpower in existing plants, opening up federal lands to coal mining will require a new crop of jobs if there is still any life left in coal.

I don't know if any of this makes any difference, good or bad, but there are arguments both ways. I am not confident in saying any projection or prophecy is laughable. I am a skeptic when it comes to any prediction. But I do think that a free market produces better "economy" than a highly regulated one.

American history is filled with horror stories regarding "the market" when left unchecked. Collapses, scandals, abused workers... despite all of that we still have people asking to "just let the markets work."

I'll admit, regulations are tough to enforce in a relevant manner at a blanket level, but to just trust that a bunch of companies are going to make the right decisions for "the little guy" is crazy.
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[Got Stripers]

So 75,000 coal miner jobs are worth more then probably 4 times the amount of jobs in alternate energy industries?

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

So 75,000 coal miner jobs are worth more then probably 4 times the amount of jobs in alternate energy industries?

Absolutely. Because alternative energy is a huge threat to all that old oil money.

Can you imagine how broke all those oilmen will be if this country went full solar, wind, tide and biofuel from switchgrass and hemp? How could they pau for their yachts?
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[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

So 75,000 coal miner jobs are worth more then probably 4 times the amount of jobs in alternate energy industries?

If the market was able to function as a market rather than the brainstorm of some central planner, alternate energy would easily be able to rev up that 4 times amount of jobs if it was more economical to do so.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

So 75,000 coal miner jobs are worth more then probably 4 times the amount of jobs in alternate energy industries?

Obama's stimulus package (almost a trillion dollars) was supposed to create a whole lot of clean energy jobs. Right? And it didn't. So maybe there is more going on in that industry, than can be solved by throwing some money at it.