Coal job losses more than offset by other energy gains, but not in W.Va.

Charleston Gazette
Coal job losses more than offset by other energy gains, but not in W.Va.

by David Gutman, Staff writer
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.

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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150413/GZ01/150419912

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