The widespread introduction of renewable technology negatively impacted the economy of coal towns through job losses. According to Gutman (2015), the coal electricity industry lost nearly fifty thousand jobs in the period between 2008 and 2012, marked by a rapid increase in wind and solar energy use. In cities where jobs in coal mining presented a substantial portion, many workers, including people involved in coal transportation and power plants which used coal, were left without jobs due to high coal prices.
On the other hand, the economy of cities where renewable energy is being produced benefited from new jobs in the natural gas, wind, and solar energy industries. In particular, the renewable energy source industry jobs include equipment installation and repair positions, management, and administrative positions. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (2017), the barriers limiting coal industry employees’ ability to integrate into renewable energy jobs can be explained by different the distribution of jobs in the industries. The electric power generation industry includes an almost equal proportion of engineers involved in installing and maintaining equipment and administrative positions, with a small proportion of workers involved in production. The coal energy industry is mainly presented by workers involved in the manufacturing process, which is a job that is not easily integrated into the administration-dominated renewable energy industry. Moreover, the electricity generated from wind and solar energy is transported directly by transmission lines, meaning that people involved in the transportation of coal cannot integrate into renewable jobs.
Thus, due to the nature of renewable energy sources and their low price, many people involved in the coal energy industry lost their jobs with no opportunity to integrate into new energy industries. Renewable energy sources are more environmentally-friendly, which is a significant advantage for environmental protection. However, I think that renewable energy’s advantages outweigh the disadvantages because the disadvantages mainly occurred due to the rapid transition to renewable energy. If the process was regulated by governmental policies and the transition was performed with a job retention program, there would be no significant disadvantages associated with renewable energy.
References
Gutman, D. (2015). Coal job losses offset elsewhere. The Charleston Gazette. Web.
U.S. Department of Energy. (2017). U.S. energy and employment report. Web.