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
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.