Today Ford Motor Corp. and South Korea-based SK Innovation announced plans to build two battery manufacturing plants in Glendale, Kentucky that are expected to employ 5,000 people.
By contrast, the U.S. Federal Reserve reports that there are 3,500 people employed in coal mining in Kentucky as of 15 March.
Anybody want to take a wild guess which way coal jobs are trending? Here’s a hint.
Think about that for a minute. At the beginning of 1992 there were 24,200 coal mining jobs in Kentucky. At the end of 2020 there were 42,200 coal mining jobs in the United States.
And don’t buy into any nonsense about regulations hampering job growth. It’s about extraction costs, pure and simple.
Eastern coal is facing rising extraction costs because its veins are thinner and buried deeper than the coal in Wyoming’s sprawling Powder River Basin. Eastern coal can cost up to twice as much as the western resource, making it unable to compete against cheaper natural gas, experts said.
Trump Cannot Bring Back Coal, Scientific American, 10 May 2016
Anyone – a politician or otherwise – that says they’re going to “bring back coal” is either lying or stupid. (Remember – it’s not a lie if you believe it.) Probably both.
Getting a couple of plants that’ll support production of electric vehicles sounds like a better deal to me.
I deal only in facts, that’s why I’m a cocky f-ckin’ bastard.
Bill Hicks
Stay healthy and safe.
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