Models that Work: Mining for Renewable Energy and Green Jobs

We know that solar and wind power can supply us with clean sustainable energy supplies, but what does it mean for job creation and the economy? Assessing the economic benefits of the renewable energy industry versus the coal industry is what you would call a relatively young science. Fortunately, many coal mines and many coal-fired power plants are located in areas with superb renewable energy potential, providing excellent opportunities to compare the economic benefits of coal versus renewables.

One recent study examined the long-term economic benefits choosing wind power over mountaintop coal mining on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. It found that investing in renewable energy over coal is not only a responsible environmental choice but also creates more jobs and economic benefits.

Mountaintop coal mining, prevalent throughout West Virginia, is an incredibly destructive practice which decimates the environment, poisons communities, and destroys the natural beauty of the land. In just the last two decades alone coal companies, using dynamite and bulldozers, have blown the tops off of over 450 mountains and buried more than 700 miles of streams. Those streams not buried are polluted with a laundry list of toxic chemicals including selenium, arsenic, and mercury which kill wildlife and leach into drinking water. Wind, while there are concerns over the impact on birds, has a comparably small negative environmental impact

In addition to the clear environmental benefits, the report found that a wind farm would yield more revenue and produce yield more jobs. Mountaintop removal from Coal River Mountain would cease operations after only 17 years, bringing to an end the property taxes and jobs resulting from coal extraction. Wind turbines however, would operate indefinitely, creating permanent jobs and a permanent flow of taxes into public coffers. At a minimum, a wind farm would create the same amount of jobs as would mountaintop removal, and could create as many as seven times more jobs if the turbines were produced locally. Specifically per year, taxes from coal extraction yielded about $40,000 while wind turbines generated $1.74 million.

Renewable energy industries such as solar and wind create many more jobs than coal, and can do so with minimal environmental impacts. Overall, renewable resource industries such as solar and wind create 2.8 times more jobs than coal.1 Add these benefits to the avoided health costs of coal emissions and waste and replacing coal with renewable energy industries becomes a critical part of economic recovery and future prosperity for the nation and for localities like Coal River Mountain that have depended on coal-based economic industries.