• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The only people who want this are West Virginians. Their entire economy is, and has been, so invested in coal that it’s a 3rd world country up there. Watch some of Peter Santenello’s videos, but you may cry like I did.

    Who wants a coal plant?! Even conservative areas will scream NIMBY! NW Florida is as conservative as it gets and we’re going mad with solar farms.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOPM
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      3 days ago

      It was invested in coal. Then there were technical improvements which let mine owners replace people with equipment. So coal mining is now a fairly minor source of employment.

      • federal reverse@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        Somewhat related: I recently took a tour through the now-defunct local coal plant. Before 1990, there were 4 teams of 20 people each running this single coal plant.

        Right now, just 4×5 people run power generation for the entire city (mostly fossil gas, but also some solar, wind and a large battery), although actually the plants are designed to work safely for 72h without manual intervention.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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          3 days ago

          You absolutely shouldn’t do this, but one Japanese operator was caught running a nuclear plant where the only people on the night shift were cleaners, who hadn’t even been told what their radiation badges were. They got a minor fine.