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Coal job losses offset elsewhere Gutman, David . The Charleston Gazette ; Charleston, W.V. [Charleston, W.V]13 Apr 2015: A.1.

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ABSTRACT  

As the American electricity sector transformed following the 2008 recession, job losses in the coal industry were

far outweighed by job gains in natural gas, wind and solar. But, as a tour through West Virginia's southern

coalfields would show, those new jobs were typically not created in the same areas where jobs were lost, a new

study finds. The coal electricity industry lost more than 49,000 jobs between 2008 and 2012, the report from Duke

University's Nicholas School of the Environment estimated.

So for the coal sector, the numbers encompass not only mining jobs, but jobs involving transporting coal and jobs

at coal-fired power plants. Metallurgical coal is excluded.

"It's not very promising, unfortunately, at least in the near term, [Lincoln Pratson], a professor of earth science, said

of energy jobs in West Virginia. "I am always impressed at how rapidly the energy industry changes so I'm hesitant

to say what this bodes for even the near future for West Virginia, but if you just look at the situation as it stands

now it doesn't look like the coal industry is going to undergo a rapid period of growth anytime soon. FULL TEXT  

As the American electricity sector transformed following the 2008 recession, job losses in the coal industry were

far outweighed by job gains in natural gas, wind and solar. But, as a tour through West Virginia's southern

coalfields would show, those new jobs were typically not created in the same areas where jobs were lost, a new

study finds. The coal electricity industry lost more than 49,000 jobs between 2008 and 2012, the report from Duke

University's Nicholas School of the Environment estimated.

At the same time, the study estimates that the natural gas industry added nearly 95,000 jobs and wind and solar

added a combined 79,000 jobs.

That's a net increase of more than 124,000 energy jobs over the last four years, but, for suffering coal communities,

the job gains aren't in the right places.

"Job increases in the natural gas, solar and wind industries generally did not occur where there were significant job

losses in the coal industry, the study says, "particularly in West Virginia and Kentucky.

The numbers focus on operations jobs, not construction jobs.

So for the coal sector, the numbers encompass not only mining jobs, but jobs involving transporting coal and jobs

at coal-fired power plants. Metallurgical coal is excluded.

The study did not include manufacturing or construction jobs, for building things like mining equipment, solar

panels or power plants, as, the authors say, those jobs can often be outsourced, or for building power plants, can

be temporary.

For the coal and natural gas industries, the authors used economic and energy production data to extrapolate job

changes. Job numbers for wind and solar come from industry reports.

They then combined the overall jobs numbers with geographical data on where gas and coal are extracted, where

new power generation has opened and where power plants have closed to get a county-by-county analysis.

The hardest hit areas, the study finds, were in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky as well as one county

in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. It did find moderate increases in coal jobs in Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.The

study will appear in the July issue of "Energy Policy a peer-reviewed journal, and was conducted with no external or

industry funding.

The authors, Drew Haerer and Lincoln Pratson, cited three reasons for the rapid increase in natural gas, wind and

solar jobs while coal jobs plunged.

One was cost. Coal prices rose through 2014, they write, due to higher costs associated with more difficult to mine

coal. At the same time, fracking and horizontal drilling technology caused natural gas prices to fall.

Second, tighter federal regulations on pollutants from power plants have disproportionately hurt coal, which is

much more polluting.

And lastly, government incentives plus new private financing methods have made wind and solar power more

affordable. States that have a renewable energy goal or standard, which West Virginia just repealed, generally saw

better energy job growth, the study found. West Virginia, which gets 95 percent of its electricity from coal, has just

five operational wind farms (just one in the southern part of the state) and virtually no solar power generating

capacity.

"It's not very promising, unfortunately, at least in the near term, Pratson, a professor of earth science, said of

energy jobs in West Virginia. "I am always impressed at how rapidly the energy industry changes so I'm hesitant to

say what this bodes for even the near future for West Virginia, but if you just look at the situation as it stands now

it doesn't look like the coal industry is going to undergo a rapid period of growth anytime soon.

The largest job gains came in solar facilities in the Southwest; natural gas production in North Dakota,

Pennsylvania and west Texas and wind power across the Midwest.

As for the coalfields of central Appalachia, the authors are not predicting a renaissance.

"When, if ever, the job numbers will approach 2008 levels again, however, is unclear, they write. "In the interim,

counties that continue to rely inordinately on the coal industry for jobs may be in for a long period of lowered

employment by the industry.

Reach David Gutman

at [email protected], 304-348-5119 or follow

@davidlgutman on Twitter.

Credit: David Gutman Staff writer DETAILS

Publication title: The Charleston Gazette; Charleston, W.V.

First page: A.1

Publication year: 2015

Publication date: Apr 13, 2015

Publisher: Charleston Newspapers

Place of publication: Charleston, W.V.

Country of publication: United States

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States

Source type: Newspapers

Copyright  2017 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions Contact ProQuest

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 1672918801

Document URL: http://prx-

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Copyright: Copyright Charleston Newspapers Apr 13, 2015

Last updated: 2015-04-14

Database: ProQuest Central