Historically, buy-in has been most difficult in rural communities that have deep-ties to the coal industry.
Shawn Teigen, vice president and research director at Utah Foundation, presented figures on Utah’s coal counties. In 1981, coal mining jobs peaked but have decreased since. At first, he discovered, the drop in jobs was conversely aligned with a rise in production because of new technological developments. But for the past 10 years, he said, coal production has also started to dip.
“These things are definitely related, there is innovation and a decline in production that has led to a decrease in jobs,” he said. At the same time, the pie-slice representing coal on the U.S. energy profile—while still large—is proportionally smaller because it’s prohibitively expensive.
“The reason you see an increase in renewables and an increase in natural gas is because it is cheaper,” Teigen said. “Almost nobody is building coal plants in the United States.”
