Helping the Economy During an Economic Downturn

                                    

When writing about coal in the newspaper or the blogosphere, people often omit the positive impacts coal has on America.

Besides providing 50 percent of our domestic electricity, coal also has a huge, positive impact on our economy. And in our current economic state, that’s a great thing. In an article in today’s Washington Post, writers Steven Mufson and Blaine Harden highlight why coal is so important to this country’s financial well-being.

Coal is the only fuel the United States can export more of than we import. And with the growing demand in Asia (as illustrated by the great graphic that accompanies the Post’s article), the United States is helping fill that need. These exports are a welcome boon to the economy.

Most of the above-mentioned boom in demand is occurring in China, where new coal-generated power plants are being built every week or so. And as I’ve mentioned before, India is not far behind.

So no matter what is happening here in the discussions over coal, there is no stopping its use in these developing giants.

That leaves it up to us to be sure we keep putting dollars into funding clean coal technology research. Remember, if we lead the way in creating and implementing the best ways to use coal, we won’t only be exporting the fuel, but U.S.-bred technology as well. China and India’s demand won’t subside, but with our help in developing cleaner ways to use coal, the future will be brighter for everyone.