CheyenneGunslinger
Well-known member
Since Wyoming is an energy state does it help with new jobs, hurts Wyoming or has no real affect as to the economy of the state.
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How does Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord affect Wyoming?
- Thread starter CheyenneGunslinger
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fromolwyoming
Well-known member
Well, since the world as a whole is abandoning coal left and right, clean or not, it really doesn't help much.
CheyenneGunslinger
Well-known member
fromolwyoming said:
But China is buying a lot of coal from N. Korea. I wish they would buy it from the US
They were, the trains were running through Missoula a few times a day on their way to Port of Seattle to be shipped across. Not as many coal trains nowadays.
WestWYOPoke
Well-known member
If the US gets their heads out of their rears and realizes that the market is shifting from coal to other forms, we should be fine. As long as the US starts investing in and becoming/continuing to be a world leader in renewable energy technology. What better place to try and improve the efficiency of solar and wind power than in Wyoming, it's got plenty of both. I get it, it's a coal state, well why not do both, ignoring wind, solar, etc. isn't going to bring coal back.
CheyenneGunslinger
Well-known member
WestWYOPoke said:
I think wind and solar are great. But, why not have all three. China and India are building ever dirtier coal mines, I still think there is a place for clean coal in the US but everyone has turned their head to that fact because it seems so taboo. What a shame.
fromolwyoming
Well-known member
CheyenneGunslinger said:
Actually, China and India are scrapping their coal plants and switching to other forms of energy.
WestWYOPoke
Well-known member
CheyenneGunslinger said:
That's what I said...when I said, why not have both, I meant coal AND renewables. And as fromolwyoming said, china and india are working at curbing their coal usage. Wyoming (and the US) needs to get with the times or get run over.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
It does nothing for Wyoming coal. The 100s of years of abundance of relatively cheap natural gas due to unconventional drilling techniques and the excess of LNG in the world market put the nail in the coal coffin. The withdrawal is symbolic at best for Trumps support of the coal industry. Those waiting for a "coal rebound" are only fooling themselves; there were many people waiting for a "whale oil rebound" 150 years ago as well.
CheyenneGunslinger
Well-known member
fromolwyoming said:
Well, I recently saw a report where China has purchased huge amounts of coal from N. Korea. Not only has China suppose to have cut back on trade with N. Korea but China has actually increased trade with N. Korea. Plus, they plan to add much more pollutants to the environment with coal. We can produce a much clearer versions of coal than N. Korea. And as I said about both China and India are building even more dirtier versions of coal mines than we have in the US. So, why are we shutting down our coal mines. Plus, I can't help but believe we can produce a clean version of coal with all the technology that is available today. But, it's going to take investment in new technologies.
CheyenneGunslinger said:
There is no such thing as clean coal. It just doesn't exist. Here's a good article that details how many pounds of CO2 our various fuels generate per million Btu units of energy produced. As you will see, coal is the worst offender and natural gas the best of all of them. That's just facts. Coal is going the way of the dinosaur (no pun intended) and to think that the industry is going to make some miraculous recovery is foolish.
http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/is-there-really-such-a-thing-as-clean-coal
Asmodeanreborn
Well-known member
Should also be mentioned that the U.S. still produces a lot of coal - it just needs WAY fewer workers to do so than it used to. Currently there are more people who work at Wendy's than there are miners... and even if production somehow doubled to a new all-time record, it still wouldn't employ all that many people.
Wyoming's got the benefit of being able to extract coal cheaper than almost anywhere else in the developed world, but as has already been mentioned, diversifying is incredibly important. Why not be ahead of the curve in terms of development instead of desperately clinging to the past?
As for China and North Korea - China's imported coal from North Korea for many, many years, but the volume NK produces falls way short of what China gets from Australia. While China's also still building coal plants, they've scrapped a large portion of the planned ones while instead shifting gears to renewables, nuclear, and Thorium reactors, though the latter remain to be seen if they can manage to get to be successful.
Wyoming's got the benefit of being able to extract coal cheaper than almost anywhere else in the developed world, but as has already been mentioned, diversifying is incredibly important. Why not be ahead of the curve in terms of development instead of desperately clinging to the past?
As for China and North Korea - China's imported coal from North Korea for many, many years, but the volume NK produces falls way short of what China gets from Australia. While China's also still building coal plants, they've scrapped a large portion of the planned ones while instead shifting gears to renewables, nuclear, and Thorium reactors, though the latter remain to be seen if they can manage to get to be successful.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-06-13/coal-s-era-starts-to-wane-as-world-shifts-to-cleaner-energy
Telling statistic...world coal consumption fell by 1.7% last year compared with an average annual increase of 1.9% per year between 2005-2015. Anyone want to chart the curve, that will tell you all that you need to know about the future of coal.
Coal consumption isn't driven by the Paris Climate Agreement or politics...it's driven by the one factor that drives everything...the MARKET. Coal simply cannot compete with natural gas.
Telling statistic...world coal consumption fell by 1.7% last year compared with an average annual increase of 1.9% per year between 2005-2015. Anyone want to chart the curve, that will tell you all that you need to know about the future of coal.
Coal consumption isn't driven by the Paris Climate Agreement or politics...it's driven by the one factor that drives everything...the MARKET. Coal simply cannot compete with natural gas.
