4 ms·
It's pretty clear at this point that coal isn't economically viable compared to natural gas and even some renewable sources, and it won't get any better. Artifi
by kevan 8y ago
It's pretty clear at this point that coal isn't economically viable compared to natural gas and even some renewable sources, and it won't get any better. Artificially propping up demand might delay it by 5-10 years. But you can only fight the inevitable for so long. Then the crash off of coal will be more severe and harder to manage.
- cletus 8y agoYou can prop up an industry for longer than you think. Just look at corn.
- XorNot 8y agoThe thing is humans aren't actually going to stop eating corn - like, our taste in foodstuffs hasn't shifted that much. Whereas the trend into the future is to basically drive coal use down to nothing - it's dirty and harder to deploy then modern alternatives, and even if you kept the mines open the advent of gas turbines means that coal-seam gas would be the fossil fuel you'd be targeting.
- vermontdevil 8y agoCorn is mostly produced for cow feed and gas. It’ll collapse at some point but it’ll be a while due to these two industries.