Trump plans $700M in new coal support(www.reuters.com)

5 pointsby JumpCrisscross4 hours ago1 comment

bix64 hours ago
> Of the $700 million, more than half will fund 13 coal plant upgrades, $185 million will match corporate funds for coal facilities in Alaska, Maryland and West Virginia, and $75 million will support the long-proposed West Gateway export terminal in Northern California.
Why not shut this all down and use the money on solar? Is there actually a defensive justification for this?
- freakynit3 hours ago
  Solar still doesn't work at night and we it still doesn't have an answer for grid-scale energy storage for usage at night.
  - roryirvine3 hours ago
    Grid-scale battery storage exists, and there are several potentially viable pathways to increase scale and decrease costs in commercial development. It's not yet a complete answer, but it's not unreasonable to bet on it becoming one over the next decade or so.
    Coal, on the other hand, requires CCS. But CCS projects have concentrated on nat gas and chemicals, and none of those have yet proven to be viable at scale. No coal-related CCS has ever reached the pilot stage, and no-one's seriously trying to develop them.
    At this stage, the long-term future of coal looks a hell of a lot riskier than the long-term future of renewables.