All of the above is true. But coal is also alive because of the way the EPA was politically forced into classifying coal ash as solid waste as opposed to toxic. This has amplified the negative affects of coal residuals a hundred fold. It has also made it increasingly difficult to regulate as well as made it easier for state and local politicians to defend. This started decades ago
The epa provides guidelines on coal ash storage but does not have the power to enforce them. This power falls to the local level and is expected to be enforced via citizen lawsuits. Some state politicians are working hard to prevent even this.
While favorably classifying waste certainly helps the coal industry I'm not getting on the "more federal power will solve this" bandwagon.
We'd also have a lot more wind farms if it weren't for environmental regulations. A group of people with money can stall a project by taking them to court over environmental impact and compliance with regulation.
What justification is there to simply sidestep certain classes of solution that have worked just fine in the past? Federal environmental regulation worked pretty to curtail many wide-scale human pollution problems - acid rain, water pollution, and ozone depleting chemicals, just to name a few. The only real reason to not solve it federally is political capture by entrenched capital.
I don't understand, you seem to be drawing a false equivalence between any sorts of government action.
Claim: "Campaign lobbyists are giving coal an extra advantage by helping coal dodge regulations."
Your response: "We would have more wind farms if it weren't for bad regulations."
These two claims seem like two ships passing in the night. I agree with both of them.
So are you saying that the conservatives have it all wrong when they say that coal in the US would be healthy if if it were not for the actions of the federal government?
The epa provides guidelines on coal ash storage but does not have the power to enforce them. This power falls to the local level and is expected to be enforced via citizen lawsuits. Some state politicians are working hard to prevent even this.
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/politics-co...
This is directly a result of lobbyists and campaign contributions.