By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

On the campaign trail in 2016, then-candidate Donald J. Trump spent a lot of time trying to win the votes of coal miners by lying to them. He frequently told them he would end the mythical “War on Coal” and somehow magically bring back coal jobs.

Well, here it is in 2018, and now-President Donald J. Trump is still talking about saving coal jobs, even as coal miners watch their coworkers lose jobs to automation and, yes, a reduced need for coal. A lie, no matter how often it is repeated, is still a lie.

So here’s a question raised in an article on the website The Conversation, that has bugged me for quite a while now and seems to have been ignored by most people in the mainstream press and beyond: Why aren’t we trying to train these coal miners for energy jobs of the FUTURE, like solar energy?

There are programs out there that are doing some good, but we keep trying to pretend coal jobs are going to come back, and they simply aren’t.

(It should also be noted that, as one wag put it yesterday, the “War on Coal” is not being waged by wind and solar, but by natural gas. If you’re going to have an enemy, it helps to properly identify it to begin.)

Author Joshua Pierce wrote in his piece on the website “The Conversation”:

Overall, we found that after retraining, technical workers (the vast majority) would make more money in the solar industry than they do in coal. Also note this study was about careers and was done before an uptick in the practice of hiring temporary coal workers. The only downside on salaries we found are that managers and particularly executives would make less in solar than coal. This represents only about 3.2 percent of coal workers that are professional administrators.

So the question remains: Why can’t we do this?

The most logical answer is tradition. As the incomparable Julia Pyper put it (gorgeously) during a Twitter discussion on the topic yesterday:

A guess: when you get up each day in the home you bought, send your kids to school, go to work, say hi to your neighbor — it’s hard to think about what “the next century’s jobs” mean for you & your family. There’s an instinct to preserve what you have.

And I respect that. I truly do. At the same time, however, it’s important that politicians and the like stop lying to these people who, no joke, have literally powered this country for the better part of two centuries. Tell them the truth: that training for jobs in solar would actually net them more money than what they’re making in the coal mines (save for administrators, who would make slightly less). That the training wouldn’t cause that much disruption to their lives. That for many of them, it would be a matter of training for a few weeks ON THE JOB and then they’d be ready to take jobs in the energy industry of the future.

It is sinful that we are telling these people horrible lies just to get their votes. Stop telling them and start training West Virginians for the jobs of the future. We can do this. We MUST do this.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Most experts agree that electrification of transportation is one of the keys to decarbonizing the grid. And for those who can afford to do so, that means purchasing an electric vehicle and installing a charging station at their home.

But what about those who aren’t able to make that investment or don’t have access to it easily, like low-income communities and some communities of color? Well, the California Air Resources Board is partnering with clean-energy pioneer GRID Alternatives to try to solve that problem.

The clean transportation project, dubbed the One-Stop-Shop Pilot, is expected to streamline and improve access to clean transportation-related incentives to income-qualified consumers around the state.

GRID Alternatives hopes the new project will allow low-income individuals to tap the incentives after a coordinated outreach effort alerts them to what’s available. Then, it will allow them to fill out one form to access all of the potential incentives at once. Right now, California already has clean transportation programs, but each has its own application process. The hope is that GRID Alternatives will be able to spread the word about incentives for people to upgrade their existing older vehicles, and apply and qualify for zero- and near-zero-emission cars and clean mobility options.

“This is all about making it easier for people to learn about and apply for incentives,” CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said. “Our goal is to build partnerships and community relationships to help low-income Californians get the cleanest cars as fast as possible.”

The pilot responds to a core recommendation of the Senate Bill 350 Low-Income Barriers Study to increase low-income residents’ awareness of clean transportation options by expanding education and outreach.

“GRID Alternatives is excited to partner with CARB on this important project,” said GRID Alternatives CEO and Co-Founder Erica Mackie. “CARB’s long-term vision of making it easier to access clean transportation and clean energy equity programs is a major step towards our shared vision of a transition to clean renewable energy that includes everyone.”

Incentive programs already available for low-income communities, households and individuals include:

· Increased rebates for low-income consumers through the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project;
· Low-cost loans and grants for used and new hybrid and electric vehicles through the Clean Vehicle Assistance Program;
· Projects to scrap and replace your vehicle in Southern California (Replace Your Ride), San Joaquin Valley (Drive Clean in the San Joaquin Replacement Program), and the Bay Area and Sacramento (coming soon); and
· Car-sharing projects in the Los Angeles area (BlueLA) and Sacramento (Our Community CarShare Sacramento), and coming soon to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, and Watsonville.

The streamlined application is expected to launch in mid-2019.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, long an outspoken champion of solar and other renewable energies, took one look at the Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and screamed, “Get my Press Spokesman on the phone right now!”

And just like that, Cuomo announced that New York had joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a group of 17 nations and Washington D.C. that are committed to eliminating coal from their electricity-generation and putting a moratorium on new coal plants that don’t have carbon-capture technology on them.

New York is the first U.S. state to join, although all the provinces of Canada (as well as the federal government of Canada) have already joined. The only other U.S. representative currently in the group is, somewhat ironically, Washington D.C., the epicenter of the pro-coal EPA policies that drove Cuomo to make his announcement.

In announcing the decision, Cuomo said:

The future of our environment, our economy and our children is at stake, and New York will not let President Trump take us backward. Today I am proud to announce that New York will join the Powering Past Coal Alliance to share our expertise and experience and continue to lead the fight against dirty and dangerous fossil fuels. With our bold mandate to close all coal-fired power plants by 2020 and our nation-leading commitment to renewables, we are already at the forefront of the clean energy revolution and we will not go back.

It is true that New York has come a long way in its clean-energy goals and its commitment to clean energy. With 16 other governors, Cuomo helped form the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group that has been working to promote clean energy as a way of protesting the U.S. decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. Under Cuomo, it has also set a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) of getting 50% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030, one of the most aggressive RPS’s in the Northeast.

New York’s decision to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance just goes to show how wrong-headed many leaders believe the new pro-coal policies of the EPA are. Look for other states to consider joining the Alliance now that New York had set the pace.