With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I’m more depressed than when I posted this

  • bob_lemon@feddit.de
    193·
    10 months ago

    Imo, the US needs to work toward nuclear usage being 90-95% instead of using coal. There’s still a need for natural gas but it can be minimized

    Why? Wind and solar are cheaper, faster to build and don’t produce toxic waste. They can easily cover most of the energy needs. Or technically all of it, once you start using any overcapacity for hydrogen production (which is needed for carbon neutrality anyways).

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      61·
      10 months ago

      The focus on hydrogen is a trick by fossil fuel companies. The most efficient way we currently have to generate hydrogen for a theoretical hydrogen based grid is through methane. The playbook is quite simple: convince everyone that hydrogen is clean, which in itself is true, then use the cost effectiveness of subsided fossil fuels to outcompete renewable hydrogen production.

      We still need something for winter nights without wind, and renewables aren’t cutting it everywhere. I’m not saying many coal plants could easily be replaced by renewable power sources, but without a few nuclear plants here or there we’ll never be able to get rid of them.

    • Beowulf@unilem.org
      32·
      10 months ago

      Here in Texas, we use wind and solar a lot. That’s why in 2021 when it froze, we had zero power. The wind turbines were seized from the freeze and snow covered the solar panels. We had dropped our coal production until we had to suddenly go to 100% utilization.

      And with it being texas and hardly snowing, we don’t have infrastructure in place for the roads. There’s no snow plows, road salt, tire chains, etc…

      • Wanderer@lemm.ee
        41·
        10 months ago

        I think that was propaganda.

        The shitty electrical grid and the gas plants that couldn’t operate in winter failed. Wind power prevented worse blackouts as they kept working.