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samedi 6 mai 2017

Conservative Think Tank Inadvertently Plugs Solar Energy When It Meant to Praise Coal

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) made an unexpected push for solar energy in a newly published article intending to argue for more coal production. The think tank, which leans far right on the political spectrum, shared an "inconvenient energy fact" via Twitter . . . except the only inconvenient piece of the story was what the data actually demonstrated.

Inconvenient energy fact: It takes 79 solar workers to produce same amount of electric power as one coal worker. https://t.co/JkmA4CLmUW http://pic.twitter.com/w9sTmrEs8l

- AEI (@AEI) May 4, 2017

Just from viewing AEI's tweet, it seems pretty apparent that it is not delivering the message it thinks it is. In fact, AEI makes a pretty good case for investing more in solar as a way to expand the job market. The story, however, attempts to argue that coal production is actually more efficient since it requires less labor.

"To produce the same amount of electric power as just one coal worker would require two natural gas workers and an amazingly-high 79 solar workers," the article argues before making its rather matter-of-fact point (and one that largely departs from President Donald Trump's desire to resuscitate coal mining).

"The goal of America's energy sector isn't to create as many jobs as possible, especially the politically-favored and heavily-subsidized renewable energy jobs," the article states. "Rather, the economic goal is to produce as much electric power as possible at the lowest possible cost, and that means we want the fewest number of energy workers!"

Given that Trump's push to reinvigorate coal fails to align with AEI's defense of coal, the entire story becomes more convoluted. Trump lifted former President Barack Obama's limits on the coal industry as a way to create more jobs. But, as AEI's investigation demonstrates, expanding the coal industry is more or less only beneficial to the employer since it has to hire fewer people to produce the same amount of energy.

Seems like conservatives have a disconnect they desperately need to discuss.

samedi 6 mai 2017