Conservative Republican: Dont blame Obama for coal countrys problem (VIDEO)

[egbertowillies]

Conservative Republican Consultant Rick Wilson should have been making these statements before the election to folks in coal country. They should have heard the truth he is now telling them then.

Donald Trump played games with the residents of coal country. What will they do when they realize they were used and will get hurt by his policies?

https://egbertowillies.com/2017/02/04/conservative-no-blame-obama-coal-country/

[Botany]

1. The power plants now use gas and not coal

end of story

[Blue_true]

5. There are power plants that still burn coal. But no

New ones are planned as best I can gather from reading up on the subject. Plus, the cost per kilowatt-hour of renewable energy sources has reached the same level as the cost of the unit from coal, natural gas is still far cheaper than both. Natural gas offers several advantages, easier to transport, store, does not damage equipment nearly as badly and leaves little solid residue. Power plants that use natural gas have longer run times between maintenance and the maintenance duration times are shorter, with fewer parts replacements.

[Wounded Bear]

6. It's happening all over the world...

In part, it is because of the Paris Accords on Climate Change, but largely it is cost and convenience.

Here in the PNW, there have been enormous fights over expanding coal transport through our ports. Bubbling just under the surface is the reality that consumption is declining and expanding coal shipments at great cost to local environmental concerns is not even economically viable.

Even China, which is where a lot of these shipments are bound, is backing off on coal fired plants.

[NickB79]

10. It's due to fracking, mostly

Fifteen years ago, before widespread fracking began, nat gas prices were spiking as conventional deposits were depleting.

[safeinOhio]

2. In fact, opening up more land to

Oil and gas drilling, along with less restrictions on fracking, NG prices will fall even more.

[DinahMoeHum]

3. Wilson has a great piece in The Daily Beast. . .

. . .worth checking out. . .

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/04/president-chaos-collides-with-reality.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

[Blue_true]

7. I hope that once Trump is deposed, conservatives like

Wilson realize that they have a lot more in common with us than they wanted to admit. If they would just stop the personal destruction bullshit, all of them and us and the country will be better off.

[Zambero]

4. "Religious freedom" and gun rights paranoia will fill the void

Obama once alluded to this with his "guns and bibles" remark. Once the cynical campaign promises of economic recovery are revealed for what they are, namely false promises, social issues will become the order of the day. Some of the affected people in coal country will actually get it, but the recurring dynamic expressed in "What's The Matter With Kansas?" is very much in play.

[lame54]

8. They will do as they always do...

Vote Republican

[hollowdweller]

9. here's the deal on coal vs natural gas

OK even though a horizontal well and fracking is worse than an old gas well the size of area disturbed is way smaller than the size of a strip mine.

In a strip mine or deep mine you have to have a fairly large amount of people to keep the energy moving out, along with paying into SS, workers comp injuries etc.

With a gas well it pumps out he gas and once drilled requires a minimum of people to keep the energy moving.

With gas you may need a compressor station, but with coal you have to have a processing plant to get the coal washed of impurities and then the waste water has to be dumped into these empoundments that until they are totally full of solid stuff are a source of liability for the company.

I have a traditional gas well on my property. It's in the woods and the flat area is 20x40 if that. I get 200,000 cubic feet of free natural gas from an agreement signed years ago. Somebody comes up and checks on it maybe once a month but there's no pollution, nothing.

Coal mining just generates so many potential liabilities for the company and also uses so many more workers. I can't really see how they compete.

[roamer65]

11. Ronnie Raygun and Paul Volcker destroyed most of our coal using industrial base.

There are no jobs coming back to that region.

[Dulcinea]

12. My 2 cents:

I grew up in SWPA, & there were quite a few coal miners in my family.

Coal is all these people know. They don't want retraining. They want to be well compensated for doing a filthy, dangerous job. They don't want to hear that their way of life--a high school education followed by a career mining coal--is gone forever. They would rather cling to the past than try for a better future. They're in denial that natural gas and automation took their jobs. Trump saw that, & exploited it. He told them exactly what they wanted to hear. He won't be able to deliver what they want. Then the real shitstorm will begin.