RTPEV
Active Member
I'll tell you what...sitting back and just assuming that coal jobs are going to be around forever is not a good strategy either. Politicians who say they are going to "fight for coal" drive me nuts. They are doing their communities a disservice by not actively encouraging a transition to other industry. Regardless of any environmental or political reasons, the pure economics of coal are going to mean the end of the coal industry. True leaders need to start now to reinvent communities that are highly dependent on the coal industry.These subsidies go to people who already can afford these vehicles without subsidies. Put grants into low income and rural communities. The areas of Kentucky that flooded are mostly poor rural areas. Some Homes don't have indoor plumbing let alone A/C and heat their Homes with wood burning stoves in winter because they can't afford to turn up the thermostat. There are areas all over the country that are like this. This is where this money should be going. Where are the Green jobs in Coal country to replace the Coal Natural gas and Oil jobs?
So where might those oil & gas jobs wind up? How about large scale compressed (liquid) air storage facilities, which tend to use a lot of the skills present in the oil & gas industry? Or geothermal? Or something completely different. Those areas are probably already too late in transitioning: nobody new should have been entering the coal mining industry for the past decade, knowing the writing is on the wall. But politicians have given coal mining communities false hope and yes, now they are totally screwed.