Wait one cotton-picking minute. Alabama leads the list of states that spent the most on foreign coal imports, shelling out $489 million (Figure 8A).... Alabama depends more on coal imports than any other state (relative to the size of her economy).......net imports by weight rose 26 percent in Georgia, 18 percent in North Carolina, and 43 percent in Alabama from 2002 to 2008....In 2008, Alabama imported 79 percent of the coal it used. To pay for those imports, Alabama sent $1.53 billion out of state, with the largest sums going to buy coal from Colombia and Wyoming. In-state mines not only supplied the rest of Alabama’s coal but also exported coal worth $141 million to other states. Alabama spent a net $1.39 billion on imported coal.* That is about $297.00 per person. Now, if we are concerned about Alabama Coal miners having a job, why are we not insisting that only Alabama coal be used in Alabama plants? We here in Alabama need to learn more about the coal business. We need to see that having a trade deficit, sending money out of state, is just as bad as the trade deficit the nation itself is running, as far as local employment. Do we care about jobs or not? The EPA is getting blame for losing coal mining jobs, but we send those jobs out of state, even outside the entire United States, every day we burn foreign coal. Whose interests are these politicians serving, in reality? Can any of you readers challenge this math? = = = = = = (source) * ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/Burning-Coal-Burning-Cash_full-report.pdf
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 21:23:11 +0000
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