The Outlook for Coal: 1000 more job losses in Appalachia
Rob Godby researches energy and public policy at the University of Wyoming.
.. So what President Trump has really promised to do is really enable all fossil fuels in the country. And, in fact, you know, you really can’t enable both natural gas and coal simultaneously because they’re are substitutes. You know, one has to give for the other.
.. So really when you talk about coal, what you’re talking about is more inter-region competition. So Appalachia has had a lot of challenges. It’s competing not only against cheaper natural gas, but also cheap coal from other regions of the country – in particular Wyoming, but also the interior areas of the United States from Illinois all the way south to the Gulf.
.. SHAPIRO: What would be the best-case scenario for the American coal industry at this point?
.. So we’re thinking that there may be about a 5 percent rebound in coal production in the next couple of years. But the way that impacts the areas is really different.
.. So, for example, in Appalachia, you’re still looking at a coal production decline. Most of that production increase is going to occur in the West, and that probably will occur in Wyoming. So you might see about 600 new jobs, maybe more in the West, particularly in Wyoming. And you might see about a thousand more job losses in Appalachia. And the interior might get 150, 200 new jobs if you kind of look at these projections broadly.