Attention coal companies

[ZMan]

Power prices are out if hand IMO. I do an equal pay plan for both gas and electric. We rarely use the oven in the summer, and I do have central air. My bill for electricity is $110 per month. So I pay $1320 per year for electricity. For gas I pay $31 per month, or $372 per year. I hope this nuclear plant goes in. We need some relief.

Sent from a Commodore 64 using a 300 baud modem

Im not living in my house yet, we're still remodeling, but we're paying $50-75 a month on the electric just having some lights on here and there and running power tools, and i filled my proprane for $700 back in June and im hoping that will get me through winter. Im pretty sure we're nuclear here too!

there are a lot of people who are just unemployable too, even THOSE jobs couldn't take them

True, which is why there will never ever be zero unemployment.



I think if the government has any say in anything, they should probably tell these assholes to stop gouging us so much, theres no way these companies are losing money, its not like we have a choice to pay them or not (well, if you want power that is). Its like gas, record profits every quarter, but they keep raising prices, ok, that makes sense. It just goes for all energy i think.

 

[Captain Ledd]

As new technology improves older technology becomes obsolete. Nuclear power and other renewable resources such as windmills and solar are the way of the future, like it or not (yes, nuclear power is renewable, none of it exists in nature like that, we make it that way).

Steam engines are a classic example, they took at least 6 people to operate and pilot just while it was running and is over 1/3 less efficient than a modern diesel locomotive. They took even more mechanical maintenance.

Imagine trying to get these things going again as a source of primary transportation and freight movement. The costs would be outrageous! But!, we'd be giving people jobs and using coal again, it's the American way and our path to prosperity.


As for unemployment:

I work with the disabled, I've done it for going onto 3 years now. Only rarely has the house I work out of been fully staffed. (I imagine only 4-5 months combined of that time has our house had every shift covered). VERY few people even apply, and those who do apply and get hired don't last long. Inability to follow simple directions, lazy, rude, don't respect the clients or their stuff, the list could go on. In such a rewarding job helping individuals make the best of themselves it has kinda crushed my hope for humanity.

I pretty much know the $0.30 above minimum wage per hour puts all of them off. They say they'll work anything in order to support their family, but really they want a good paying job and aren't willing to settle. I'm convinced that nearly all of the people I work with except for a very select few do what I do only because they've reached the bottom of the barrel. And sadly, that was my case. Graduated college with wide eyes and dreams of all the $$$ rolling in.... nothing, for almost 2 years. I made/had more money in college. As a chance my neighbor did this kind of work and dropped me a line. Going to go back to college soon and try to turn my psych minor into a major and actually have a career.

 

[upnsmoke]

As new technology improves older technology becomes obsolete. Nuclear power and other renewable resources such as windmills and solar are the way of the future, like it or not (yes, nuclear power is renewable, none of it exists in nature like that, we make it that way).

Steam engines are a classic example, they took at least 6 people to operate and pilot just while it was running and is over 1/3 less efficient than a modern diesel locomotive. They took even more mechanical maintenance.

Imagine trying to get these things going again as a source of primary transportation and freight movement. The costs would be outrageous! But!, we'd be giving people jobs and using coal again, it's the American way and our path to prosperity.

I partly agree with you. Coal and fossil fuels will not last forever, and must be replaced eventually. However, at our current rates of consumption, we are not in any immediate trouble. I see nothing wrong with pursuing alternate forms of energy production, but I feel like we are forcing it. Not everything can be nuclear and wind power. Mobile energy production for cars and the like can't just go away, and we aren't even close in my view, to a viable alternative gasoline and/ or diesel. Batteries don't have the capacity yet to provide anywhere near the range most vehicles require, nor are they recyclable by economic means. They are also too expensive to produce in mass numbers. I was a fan of hydrogen fuel cells, but we seem to have abandoned the pursuit of that.

Solutions always come about. People are constantly working to improve technologies and replace them with something better. In my opinion though, currently, we are just in too much of a hurry to phase out the old and bring in the new, when the new is just not ready yet. Coal isn't going away yet. I worked in a power plant in Delaware about a year back, deconstructing an old boiler to make room for a clean coal rig. I don't know anything about clean coal. My job was destruction. What I do know is that if they are building something now, they plan on having it around a while. One other thing is, just because a technology was used long ago, does not make it necessarily obsolete. Ask a modern engineer if he could make an efficient steam engine, and he may ask you why, but I doubt he will say it is impossible. Electricity has been around a long time too, and we aren't looking to phase that out just yet.

 

[CarsonChris]

I'm working near a new solar project. The main tower is over 700 ft tall. The financing and parts come from Spain. Once operational it will work for 30 years.

The entire project is about one square mile. All the reflectors point to the tower which has a chemical reactor that heats up to turn the turbine.

It's kind if cool but should only be a part of our energy plan

 

[straycat]

I partly agree with you. Coal and fossil fuels will not last forever, and must be replaced eventually. However, at our current rates of consumption, we are not in any immediate trouble. I see nothing wrong with pursuing alternate forms of energy production, but I feel like we are forcing it. Not everything can be nuclear and wind power. Mobile energy production for cars and the like can't just go away, and we aren't even close in my view, to a viable alternative gasoline and/ or diesel. Batteries don't have the capacity yet to provide anywhere near the range most vehicles require, nor are they recyclable by economic means. They are also too expensive to produce in mass numbers. I was a fan of hydrogen fuel cells, but we seem to have abandoned the pursuit of that.

Solutions always come about. People are constantly working to improve technologies and replace them with something better. In my opinion though, currently, we are just in too much of a hurry to phase out the old and bring in the new, when the new is just not ready yet. Coal isn't going away yet. I worked in a power plant in Delaware about a year back, deconstructing an old boiler to make room for a clean coal rig. I don't know anything about clean coal. My job was destruction. What I do know is that if they are building something now, they plan on having it around a while. One other thing is, just because a technology was used long ago, does not make it necessarily obsolete. Ask a modern engineer if he could make an efficient steam engine, and he may ask you why, but I doubt he will say it is impossible. Electricity has been around a long time too, and we aren't looking to phase that out just yet.

Clean coal means the coal has been chopped and washed and that is good since less emissions are produced by clean coal. Our Electric company uses this procedure and they also use natural gas to run turbines to produce energy. Our main home is both natural gas and electric powered. Our monthly bill for both is less than $90 in the summer time and around $45-49 during the winter.

 

[det107]

Clean coal means the coal has been chopped and WASHED and that is good since less emissions are produced by clean coal.

Not sure it's a or response.
We have a local mine (In Penn) & learned this:
>Bituminous is the 'dirty' cheap coal
>Anthracite is the 'cleaner' expensive coal
And remember that the miners get Black Lung disease no matter what-

 

[straycat]

Not sure it's a or response.
We have a local mine (In Penn) & learned this:
>Bituminous is the 'dirty' cheap coal
>Anthracite is the 'cleaner' expensive coal
And remember that the miners get Black Lung disease no matter what-

It does sound funny but it means the coal is often ‘cleaned’ or washed (rinsed in water/steamed) at the coal mine to remove impurities ... This variety of technologies has helped to reduce harmful emissions making it a cleaner coal. More companies need to do this.