Coal’s been on the way out for a while now. Why is that? For a quick and accessible look at the state of the coal industry—where it’s been and where it’s going—check out the new video from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
We’ve been writing about coal’s decline and its implications—and setting the record straight on misinformation about coal—for quite some time: responding to the administration’s cheerleading of coal, assessing and understanding the shift away from coal-fired electricity, why the transition away from coal is hard on workers and communities, and how intrepid business leaders in Coal Country are leading the way to new economic opportunities.
We kicked off a blog series recently with an explanation of why a slight increase in coal jobs in 2017 is no indication of a long-term trend. In this second Coal in Context blog, I’d like to highlight a short video on the reasons behind coal’s decline.
The need for a just transition
Here at UCS, we value facts and evidence—and we’re doing our part to set the record straight in a time of great uncertainty. It’s important to emphasize that the coal industry is not returning to its heyday and will instead continue to decline, despite what you may hear from administration officials and the president himself. That propaganda is dangerous because it leads to false hope—leading some to refuse training opportunities in other industries, hoping that coal mining jobs materialize.
Let’s take the longer-term view and understand that coal communities will need to develop new economic sectors to support good-paying jobs in the future—and that it is our collective responsibility to invest in those communities—through proposals like the RECLAIM Act and the POWER Initiative—so they can succeed.
We also need to take the longer-term view on the power sector as a whole– to address the urgent threat of climate change. Yet the administration continues its efforts to rescind the Clean Power Plan, something I testified against back in November in West Virginia. Please join our efforts to push back on these misguided actions—and share the video with your friends to help spread the truth.