Climate Change: The Midwest-Renewable Jobs Outpace Coal

Show Transcript

Climate Change: The Midwest

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Which states are making real and timely progress at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and what are the factors that are contributing to their success? Which states are really just paper tigers all talk and little action? That's what we are exploring in the series of episodes with scientists and energy expert Jack Kerfoot..

[00:00:24] Episode one, focusing on four Northeastern states is now streaming on YouTube and major podcast channels. Today's episode moves to the Midwest, where we'll check five states to see how they're doing. So stay with us. 

[00:00:42] Our guest expert, Jack Kerfoot, is a scientist, energy expert and author of the book Fueling America an Insider's Journey.

[00:00:52] He began his career in the energy industry in 1976 when America was paralyzed by an oil embargo. Since then, he's traveled the world working with scientists, bureaucrats, ministers, tycoons, sheiks, and heads of state on a diverse range of energy issues. He's the principal of JL Kerfoot Energy Services and blogs on his website, Our Energy Conundrum at JackKerfoot.com. Jack's a strong advocate for renewable energy as the solution for combating climate change. Jack, welcome back to The Lean to the Left Podcast. 

[00:01:33] Jack Kerfoot: Bob, it's always a pleasure to be with you and to address one of my favorite topics, how do we reduce greenhouse gas emissions? 

[00:01:40] Bob Gatty: Okay.

[00:01:42] Jack Kerfoot: I think what we need to look at when we assess how states are doing is establish criteria. What are the reasons that we decide to assess one state is doing well, making progress, and why other states may be just paper tigers for failing to address climate change whatsoever. So I think the factors that I look at when I try and look at a state and I write in my blogs the updates on how each state is doing across the United States and how countries are doing around the world.

[00:02:17] So the factors that I look at include what is the renewable resource energy potential for the region. As you mentioned in your intro, the renewable energy resources like our climate change dramatically or very dramatically across our nation. The Midwestern states, for instance, have strong and consistent winds, and they also have substantial solar resources.

[00:02:43] So what is the state doing to support the development of new renewable energy projects? Perhaps some states have taken a position of putting barriers up, such as tariffs on solar or tariffs on wind to protect the coal industry or the fossil fuel industry thinking that the renewable energy industry doesn't really generate a significant number of employees or jobs, but what we're going to actually see from state to state, there are more people employed in renewable energy projects than there are in coal mining and production of electricity from coal fueled power plants or natural gas power plants, or even nuclear power plants.

[00:03:30] That number is growing at a dramatically rapid rate. So the smart states have recognized that renewable energy is a way to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create a new economy, and reduce electricity costs. So right now, whatever the position is, not making the move to renewable energy has a negative impact on the citizens of each and every state across our nation.

[00:03:59] Another criteria I look at is how effective has the state been at moving from coal fuel power plants to renewable energy power plants like wind turbines and solar parks. Coal fuel power plants generate typically 40 to 45% more greenhouse gas emissions than natural gas and natural gas, which is also a fossil fuel, also generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:04:28] Fourth criteria I look at is what is the state doing to remove barriers to expedite the development of new renewable energy projects or power projects? Some states such as Oregon where I live or Massachusetts, have very restrictive land access laws. So the permitting time to get just state permits to tie it to build, develop, and tie in through a power line into the grid. May take 4, 6, 10, 15, in some cases, 20 years to actually go through the full cycle time to get that new power project up and running. Fifth thing that I look at is what is the state doing to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions?

[00:05:14] Has the state established a renewable energy standard? Do they have just goals to encourage the utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Some states, 13 in fact, actually have no standards whatsoever. And the last one is, what action has the state taken to improve and strengthen the regional power grid?

[00:05:38] The importance of the regional power grid is twofold as we bring in new power projects, and we have to do that anyway because the life expectancy, whether it's coal, natural gas, Wind turbine, solar Park is typically about 40 years. Now with wind turbines and solar parks, you can bring in new wind turbines very easily in the same location or bring in new solar panels.

[00:06:04] But when we talk about coal and you talk about natural gas or even nuclear, it typically means a major capital investment to transform and upgrade the operating capacity of these power plants to maintain the output capacity and also to maintain the safety standards. So the question really comes down to, as we have to build new power plants, how easy is it to bring that new power into the grid? Now, where a coal plant is usually doesn't coincide with where the wind is strongest or where the sun is strongest, or where even the natural gas plants would go. So the inevitability as we move away from the most polluting, particularly greenhouse gas polluting, coal to natural gas and hopefully renewable energy, we have to realize that we will have to be able to tie in to the power grid. So we have to realize that there will be investments to the power grid and access to tie into that grid. The other factor we have to realize is the power grid resistance to climate change.

[00:07:09] We have already started to see across the nation and around the world, major increases in the amount of severe weather. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and blizzards. The increase is dramatic. We look at 1980 to, let's say 2000, and compare that to 2001 to 2021. We actually see an over an 80% increase globally in these major catastrophic climate events.

[00:07:41] Which means that our grid, when these happen, they're no longer one in a hundred year storms. They're becoming at a dramatically increasing rate and frequency and intensity. And so when it happens, the power goes out and not just for one or two hours and not just for a four or five square mile area.

[00:07:59] We're talking about. Losing the power grid in the entire state of Texas, which happened almost in 2021. They were able to maintain the power grid by having a rolling series of blackouts from El Paso all over to the eastern part of Texas, and from northern Texas to southern Texas to realize that's the second most populated state Now in the U.S.

[00:08:21] If it can happen in Texas with a centralized grid that they have, it can very easily happen in the northeast, the east, the southeast, or the west coast. So resilience of that power grid is the most important factor that we have to look at as well. So these are the factors that I look at. 

[00:08:42] So why don't we move to the assessment now of the five states I've chosen to look at in the Midwest, which is Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. And let's determine at the end of each analysis of each state, are they really making progress or are they paper tigers? 

[00:09:02] Bob Gatty: With all of that having been said, Jack what's your conclusion for these states? Why don't we start with Iowa. 

[00:09:11] Jack Kerfoot: Iowa's perhaps the most interesting state of the five in the fact that if you ask most people, which state would be the first to enact a renewable energy standard?

[00:09:24] In other words, the standard for the state would be all utilities have to generate a certain percentage of renewable energy within a certain period of time and continually increase that. I think you would expect many people to say either a west coast state, like California, or perhaps an East coast state like New York or New Jersey or Massachusetts.

[00:09:44] But the reality is, Iowa in 1983 enacted the US' first renewable energy standard. They call it the alternative energy law, requiring all investor owned utilities to operate at least 105 megawatts of renewable energy power plants. It was the first state in the entire United States in 1983 to implement that program.

[00:10:10] Now we have to realize what was going on in Iowa at that time. What Iowa had in 1983, the entire country did, was double digit inflation, which really crippled the farmers and also they had high fuel costs. So the state was asking themselves, what can we do to make it easier for the farming community, the agricultural community, which is a dominant industry in Iowa, to help make it easier for them.

[00:10:38] So they enacted this law to drive down the utility costs or electricity costs, moving from coal, moving from natural gas, but moving to renewable energy to drive down this cost, and also encouraging the development of green fuel or biofuel, which will drive down the fuel cost for transportation, and also the beginning of a renewable energy industry in the state of Iowa.

[00:11:05] Now in 2010, Iowa used coal to generate 70% of the state's electricity. But in March of 2023, which is the most recent data I have from the US Energy Information Agency, they generated only 20% of the electricity from coal. More importantly, most of that move from coal wasn't to gas, it was to renewable energy.

[00:11:31] So although they had coal in 2010, commercial coal mining actually Began in Iowa in the 1840s, before the Civil War. But the last coal mine in Iowa closed in 1990. So the coal they have now for their one lone coal plant is brought in by rail from Wyoming, I think. But more importantly is in 2022, 57% of their electricity was just from wind.

[00:12:02] So they made 

[00:12:02] Bob Gatty: That's remarkable. That is remarkable. 

[00:12:05] Jack Kerfoot: And it's basically what it's telling you is the entire state has embraced renewable energy. The wind farms, the wind turbines that are out there for, if they're on the agricultural landowner or farmer's lands they get a royalty. So it helps them when the downturn of the economy or the crops are bad from that particular year, it generates tax revenue for states.

[00:12:28] And it also is building a dramatic renewable energy economy. So where they are today is 68% of Iowa's electricity is strictly from renewable energy, wind primarily, but also some solar. So I think we have to look at Iowa and say they've done a remarkable job, and it's also important to recognize that there has been virtually no resistance to wind turbines or renewable energy whatsoever in Iowa. We do find in certain areas people come up with false impressions or inaccurate data. Fake news if you want, such as wind kills all the birds or wind is fake is, doesn't generate anything or any power. Solar is bad for the crop areas.

[00:13:21] The actual fact is none of these factors are actually true. In the case of solar, what we're really seeing is something called voltaics, and that's where when they put in the solar panels, what they also do is put in certain types of plants. And these plants are designed specifically to increase the pollinators, the bees, and the butterflies.

[00:13:43] As a result, instead of seeing a continued decrease in the pollinators, which is essential for the farmers in the areas, what they put out, these volta or solar parks, they're actually seeing an increased numbers in the. Bees and the butterflies, the pollinators, and as a result, increased productivity in the actual farms in that particular area.

[00:14:07] And that's seen not only in the US, but also in Europe, particularly in France and in Germany and in Austria and in Italy. The state of Iowa was one of the first ones to recognize it, and it's paying them huge dividends right now. Right now they have one of the cheapest electricity costs in the United States.

[00:14:23] It's just almost at 10, if not below 10 cents per kilowatt hour. The average in the US is around 15, 16 cents per kilowatt hour. 

[00:14:32] Bob Gatty: Wow. That is remarkable. So how about how about Illinois? Iowa's neighbor? 

[00:14:39] Jack Kerfoot: Iowa's neighbor, and the land of Lincoln? Yeah. I think what impresses me about Illinois is the fact that legislators have looked at renewable energy over time and made adjustments in their renewable energy standards. In 2001, they enacted a voluntary renewable energy portfolio, which encourages utilities to sell 25% of the renewables by 2025. In 2007, they turned it into a standard that mandated they sell at least 25% and then by 2021, they increased that to a 50% for renewable energy by 2040.

[00:15:21] Now, That's a very aggressive target because where they are right now is about 50% of their electricity, or 40, 40% to 45% is actually from nuclear, which is also zero carbon. So they've been actively involved at looking at ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What's important too, is Illinois also has coal mining.

[00:15:43] In 2010, they used coal fuel power plants to generate about 47, 50% of their electricity. But in March of this year, only 14% of their electricity was coal. I think it's important to recognize that in 2021, they actually had 12 operating coal mines. The type of coal they use actually generates is used in steel generation and also in power generation. But what's interesting in 2021, and this is where we hear certain legislators in certain states, usually Kentucky, that talk about, I wanna preserve the coal mining industry. 'cause it's the only jobs we have. That is fake news because in 2021, I've looked at every state, and you see this trend time and time again, there were 2000, 2017 to be exact people that worked in the coal mining industry in Illinois compared to 15,000 that worked on wind turbines and solar parks in Illinois. Now when a coal mine is mined out, they close it. As long as the wind blows and the sun shines, they don't close the wind turbines.

[00:16:54] They may upgrade the wind turbines and improve the output capacity, but the job security with these renewable energy projects, it's a job for lots. It's also good paying jobs and actually very easy now because there's a shortage of people going into the to be wind turbine technicians or solar technicians.

[00:17:14] They're recruiting people from the coal mining industry, and they're easy to recruit. One, the compensation is good, sometimes even better. The safety risk is almost non-existent compared to the coal mining, especially subsurface coal mines. Three, they all know the reality is that as automation continues, that the coal mines will look to cut people and to lay people off when the coal mines are no longer economic.

[00:17:41] So again, the ability to recruit from the coal mining industry is very easy to do. There are many advantages and virtually no disadvantages with the wind turbine industry. So we again, see that coal has not only. Environmental disadvantages, but also economic disadvantages relative to people that buy their electricity, and also people that are employed by the coal mining industry.

[00:18:07] Now, Illinois fossil fuels in March of this year generated 27% of their electricity, but zero carbon sources generated 73%. So right now only 27% of their electricity is generated. From fossil fuels, which is a dramatic change. So they're using, maintaining nuclear and rapidly increasing the use of renewable energy.

[00:18:34] So they're still have the coal mines that are there, but as those coal mines close out, and they will, when the mines are no longer economic, then we will see the new economy being strictly renewable energy. 

[00:18:48] Bob Gatty: Okay. So we have two states, Illinois and Ohio, that are certainly making progress. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:18:55] How about Indiana? 

[00:18:57] Jack Kerfoot: Now, unfortunately, and again, I did this just by alphabetical order. Now we're going into the abysmal failure category. At least that's my category. We can call paper 

[00:19:07] Bob Gatty: abysmal failure. Is that what you said? 

[00:19:09] Jack Kerfoot: Abysmal failure. Yes, that's right. Or as I had a professor once, tell another student, not me.

[00:19:15] The only reason that you got a grade of F was there's no grade lower. I am not sure if they would all be f but I think they'd be considered paper tigers. In the case of Indiana, they do have a clean energy portfolio goal. Okay. Which is not mandatory.

[00:19:34] It's encouraging for the utilities to do this. The utilities do get financial incentives if they join. But, none of the utilities for Indiana have decided to join. Now, their goal is to simply sell 10% of their electricity from clean energy and to make it even more watered down, they include the term clean coal as part of that criteria as well, all. So right now I'm 

[00:20:06] Bob Gatty: Is there such a thing. 

[00:20:09] Jack Kerfoot: It is how you scrub the coal from that standpoint. It comes out of a clean coal power plant and also the B T U output from that standpoint, sulfur content as well. So some people have come up with that term to say it's clean coal; clean in this case is a relative term.

[00:20:27] Bob Gatty: Okay. 

[00:20:28] Jack Kerfoot: Alright. So commercial coal mining began in Indiana in the 1830s, so over almost a hundred years of coal mining. But in 2021, they had 13 operating coal mines, one or two more than Illinois. But in 2021, they only had 1,808 people working in the coal mining industry. And that includes the coal mines because again, the coal mines becoming more and more automated.

[00:20:59] It also includes the coal powered power plants. So this is the full aspect. So we close a coal mine. Jobs are lost. We close a coal mine, a power plant, jobs are lost. But of course, to maintain that power, we open up other projects as well. So right now we're saying 1,808 in the coal industry.

[00:21:22] Well compared in the renewables, and this is just the wind farms and the solar and a little bit of hydro. There were 10,500 people. So the reality is closing coal in this state of Indiana does not put jobs at risk. And in fact, the more they can do to accelerate the development of renewable energy, they can increase job activity and improve the economy.

[00:21:49] Assuming a legislature wants to improve the economy and get people back to work. Now in March of 2023, fossil fuels generated 82% of Indiana's electricity. Only 18% of Indiana's electricity was from renewables, wind, and also some solar. So we look at this and we can say coal is still king in Indiana, even though a greater employer is renewable energy.

[00:22:23] So we have a legislators that do not really recognize what the driving force of employment is, and they certainly don't recognize the impact of climate change on the state of Indiana. So when I look at states like this, I would encourage all the viewers that are voters in the state of Indiana to vote for legislators that are informed on renewable energy and understand the impact with their vote can change and improve their cost of electricity to go down, jobs to increase, and pollution and climate change to be addressed. 

[00:22:59] Bob Gatty: What about Missouri? Are they doing any better? 

[00:23:01] Jack Kerfoot: Well, Missouri, the show me state perhaps that's going back to their, the state nickname of the show Me State.

[00:23:09] Yeah. State, which president Truman was from usually consumes the most amount of coal of any state in the us, even more than Kentucky or West Virginia. 

[00:23:21] Bob Gatty: Wow. Really? 

[00:23:23] Jack Kerfoot: Yes. Which is surprising, but again, it's a large population state with a lot of manufacturing. They do have a renewable energy standard to sell 15% of their electricity from renewable energy by 2021.

[00:23:37] Okay. Some of the utilities have achieved that, some have not. 2010, over 80% of their electricity was from coal. In March of 2023, 50% of their electricity was from coal. So it has dropped but not as much as other states across the us. Missouri only has one coal mine and they actually have only eight people working in that coal mine.

[00:24:06] And let's compare that to the amount of renewable energy employees, which is 4,500. Oh we got eight coal, we got eight coal miners and we got 4,500 renewable energy. They put up another wind farm or another solar park, those eight coal miners are gonna be knocking on the door saying We'd like to go over there.

[00:24:28] So in March of this year in Missouri, fossil fuels, coal and natural gas, generate 60% of their electricity and. 21% was from renewables and 19% was from nuclear. So from that standpoint, they still maintain the nuclear to zero greenhouse gas emissions. But they really have been very slow at developing renewable energy.

[00:24:54] And they're adjacent to states like Oklahoma and Kansas, which have got 40, 50% of their electricity right now just from wind. Okay, so it's not a shortage of renewable energy resources. It is making all the other changes that have to be done for the state of Missouri looking at the grid, looking at removing barriers from land access laws and also encouraging utilities to make that change from an economic standpoint.

[00:25:25] So Missouri, which is University of Missouri, is actually, they are in the SEC, they are the Tigers of Missouri. But in the case of renewable energy, Missouri is a paper tiger. 

[00:25:38] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. So our fifth state that you've looked at in this analysis is Ohio. What about Ohio? They're making progress.

[00:25:49] It's another, I might add that's another state that's led by Republicans, just as a 

[00:25:55] Jack Kerfoot: matter of 

[00:25:55] it is the Buckeye state. They enacted a renewable energy standard in 2008, which is not as exceptional as Iowa, but it was a start, but that was to sell 12 a half percent of renewables by 2026.

[00:26:12] But then in 2019, they came back in and they said, oh, 12 point a half is too steep. Let's cut that back to 8.5%. Which they did, and they've also provided financial subsidies for the coal industry. So in 2010, Ohio generated 83% of their electricity from coal. In March of 2023, only 26% of their electricity was from coal.

[00:26:40] But what all the utilities basically did was make the move from coal, not to renewables, but to natural gas. They did that because the cost of natural gas was cheaper and they could see it as a steady power source that could easily be switched from coal over to natural gas without any of the other negative aspects of coal.

[00:27:00] Like with, they don't have coal ash concerns and the greenhouse gas emissions are less. So in their mind they're saying, we're reducing greenhouse gas emissions because we're moving from coal to natural gas. But they're really not doing that much to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, Ohio also has a strong lobby for the coal mining industry.

[00:27:27] They have nine operating coal mines, but in 2021, they only had 354 people employed in the coal mining industry. Compared to over 9,000 in renewable energy industry. So when you see legislators talking about, I'm supporting the coal industry for the jobs, usually what that means is that there are lobbyists on the side providing the candidates substantial funding to support their industry because that particular company or companies that are producing coal in that state don't want to be pushed to cut coal and go out of business. So what we have is it's not for the betterment of the state. It's certainly not jobs. It's certainly not cost of electricity. So my challenge is for all the people and voters in Ohio, To look at people that really have knowledge and expertise in renewable energy and recognize that renewable energies bring jobs, they bring cheaper electricity, and they can transform your economy from a coal-based economy right now, or natural gas-based economy right now to a green energy economy that will create more jobs, drive down costs for electricity, and provide a better environment for you and everyone in our nation.

[00:28:53] So in my mind when we look at these states, and I think the most compelling thing, or the argument that I hear sometimes by uninformed legislators is, but look at the jobs we'll lose in the coal mining industry. In Ohio it's 354 people. To build about four or five, six more wind farms in Ohio, and that's certainly an easy to do with in Ohio in that area.

[00:29:18] We also have to realize when we talk about Ohio and many of the Midwestern states, you can build offshore wind turbines offshore. It's shallower water. The winds offshore, even in the Great Lakes, are stronger than even in the onshore area. And that is tremendous jobs right there from that standpoint. So again, we have to challenge some of the legislators that may be more influenced by the lobbyists than it is, shall we say, doing what's best for their electorates.

[00:29:48] Bob Gatty: All right, so it looks like there's a lot of work to do, Jack. What can we learn from the energy policies of these five states? 

[00:29:56] Jack Kerfoot: I think we look at Iowa and we see that actually the farmers, which were the electorate were actually the early drivers in making the move to renewable energy, and they were driven by the economic crisis they were faced in and double digit inflation, and they collectively worked together to make sure they had legislators that understood the importance, economic importance, environmental importance, climate change importance, to make the move for renewable energy. And they're reaping that dividend right now. They've created a new economy of renewable energy and they're exporting fuel or electricity to other states at a much cheaper price.

[00:30:38] So we're creating a new power grid across the midwest and actually the great plain states as well. Illinois has steadily made improvements and changes along the way, which again, for a highly populated state like Illinois, which I think is fourth or fifth most populated state, that's not an easy task.

[00:30:59] So when you see states like California, Texas, Illinois, New York, or Florida, really show changes, then that's an extra job well done because making that change with a large population, which has a major power drain on the grid, that's quite impressive. But when we come to Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio, they really have done little to reduce their state's greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:31:25] State legislators have shown little or no support for renewable energy and actually gone out of the way to provide financial incentives for the coal mining industry. I think quite candidly when we talk about these three states, the voters in these three states need to come together, individual state elections, to have legislators that are well-informed and understand the impact of climate change, understand the economic benefits of moving to renewable energy from coal and fossil fuels.

[00:31:58] Also recognize it's not just climate change, it's more jobs, it's a better economy and it's cheaper power costs, which is an excellent way to address inflation. So, we have three paper tigers. Couple are abysmal failures in my opinion. And we have two states that are making significant progress and deserve a job well done.

[00:32:20] Bob Gatty: Okay, now you've made the point a couple of times, more than a couple of times about the job opportunities, the differences between employment between coal and renewable energy. And even in the states where that, that are doing very little the numbers of people employed in the coal industry compared to the number of people in employed in the renewable energy industry, was dramatically less. In one state it was only eight people. It was Missouri, that only had eight people employed in coal industry.

[00:33:00] And yet these politicians say oh. We have to protect jobs. We have to protect jobs. We can't throw these people outta work. And so the difference between the numbers employed in the coal industry compared to those employed in the renewable energy industry, if these politicians were looking at the facts they could hardly say that, right?

[00:33:21] It's ridiculous. 

[00:33:23] Jack Kerfoot: Again, are they listening to the facts or are they listening to lobbyists from the coal industry? Yeah that's perhaps the question to ask. Yeah. I think we have to recognize that quite candidly, that they're projecting as we move, particularly with new offshore wind farms being developed along the East Coast, more wind farms and solar projects being built right now.

[00:33:45] That we're going to see the amount of renewable energy jobs from wind and solar double by the year 20 30, 20 35. From a energy security standpoint, the more we can get to energy from a renewable standpoint that we don't have to import from other countries. It gives us energy security. It's the cheapest form of power that we can possibly look at.

[00:34:08] So it's economically there creates an economic advantage for manufacturing and for generation of our products, for export to other countries, which is again, an economic benefit. So if you're a politician or you're a person working in the legislators, my question is, please give me a reason that you would support coal and oppose renewable energy.

[00:34:32] That's I haven't found any logical answer to that question because the first question is really then, do you like to save money? And you're telling me that you don't. 

[00:34:42] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. So what are your final thoughts Jack, about all of this?

[00:34:48] Jack Kerfoot: I think we need to go back to the fact that we have compelling evidence that climate change is here.

[00:34:53] We're seeing increasing number and frequency of severe storms, not only in the US but around the world, in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, south America. So it's important that we act now in a timely manner, not just implement legislation standards, renewable energy standards for the years 2040 or 2050. But take tangible and real action to look at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, targeting that.

[00:35:23] And that can be done, we can achieve the goals that were actually set out in the Paris Agreement. And I hope your followers will come back and listen as we do the third episode of this podcast on the states and the Southwest. 

[00:35:39] Bob Gatty: That will stream on August the 28th if our schedule holds the way, it's the way it's planned.

[00:35:47] And so I invite everybody to put that on your calendar and and check it out. This is extremely important, I think, and interesting look at what's going on individually in the states across the country. I thank you Jack for doing this work, 

[00:36:06] Jack Kerfoot: Bob. It's a pleasure and it's a passion as well.

[00:36:09] Thank you very much for the opportunity to be on Lean to the Left.