A new study just released by ACCCE demonstrates that the coal industry and clean coal technologies could provide many thousands of new jobs for American workers. This would be a huge boon to the economy as we rebuild our way out of the recession.

The deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies at advanced coal facilities would create or support more than 150,000 jobs nationally, according to a study released today by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). The study done for ACCCE by BBC Research & Consulting found that 1.7 million job years1 of labor would be created through the construction of 124 new advanced coal facilities by 2025.

The Democrat Herald has a good editorial describing just how badly the latest Sierra Club anti-coal push misses the mark. Hasso Hering, (the author) describes how simple things like the fact that there’s no coal at Oregon State University appear to have escaped the movement’s organizers.

Hering then notes that if they expect OSU to stop buying their electricity from utilities that have coal in their generation portfolio, they will essentially have to give up on electricity or create their own special utility for their energy. Furthermore, he notes that while coal does have environmental impacts associated with its use, so do all the alternatives.