Coal Can Save Itself By Investing in Tomorrow's Technologies

The chart above shows the significant reduction in coal's share of total U.S.

From Marc Theissen writing in today's Washington Post:

CALGARY — A new poll shows that concern about the environment around the world is at a 20-year-low, pushed down by a bigger worry: the weak economy. When Toronto-based GlobeScan asked 22,812 people in 22 countries, including the U.S. and Canada, how worried they were about six environmental problems — air pollution, water pollution, species loss, automobile emissions, fresh water shortages, and climate change — fewer people said they now consider them ‘very serious’ than at any other time since tracking began 20 years ago.

DURING last night’s American presidential debate, there were two exchanges that would benefit from further economic analysis.In the first, the candidates seemed to agree about the virtues of burning coal and the evils of environmental regulation. An excerpt from the transcript:

Guest blog post by Dr. Rebecca Blank, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.I just returned from the White House Business Council American Economic Competitiveness Forum on Manufacturing where I had an opportunity to hear from a group of American manufacturers—representing businesses of all sizes from across the country—about how the Obama Administration can continue to support them as they build things here and sell them everywhere. As we have seen in recent months, manufacturing is one of the bright spots for our economy. Over the past 2 ½ years, more than half-a-million manufacturing jobs have been created in the U.S. – the strongest job growth in that sector since the 1990s.  In fact, just last month, an additional 25,000 new manufacturing jobs were added.In terms of production, manufacturing output is up 20 percent since 2009, and increased again in July. One manufacturing sector that has been consistently strong is the motor vehicles and parts industry, which has added 165,000 jobs since June 2009— a sector that might not even exist in the US today if not for the assistance this Administration gave to the U.S. auto industry in 2009.This matters because we know that manufacturing jobs are good jobs that pay more than average and provide greater benefits. They strengthen economic security for middle class families.There is a powerful link between America’s ability to make things and America’s ability to innovate, compete, and create good jobs. We have come to realize that you can’t separate innovation and production—they have to sit near each other.  Manufacturers perform 70 percent of all private sector R&D, investing in and producing technological advances that accounted for 90 percent of U.S. patents.  Economic research indicates that innovation – in new products or new processes – was central to three-quarters of the nation’s economic growth since World War II and it is not an accident that the manufacturing sectors where America is most competitive are all advanced manufacturing, where new technologies, new products or new production processes are central to the success of specific firms.

Last Friday, the Obama administration had a rather busy day handling China trade issues.  First, USTR announced that it was initiating, at the United Steelworker's request under "Section 301" of US trade law, an investigation of Chinese subsidies and other trade measures related to "green" energy production: