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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study: Renewable Industry Could Absorb Coal Layoffs

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Tuesday, August 23, 2016   

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The growth of solar- and wind-related jobs could easily absorb coal-industry layoffs over the next 15 years and provide full-time careers, if investments are made to retrain workers. That's according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and the Michigan Technological University.

Edward Louie, the report's co-author and a researcher at Oregon State University, said between solar and wind, Wyoming is in a good position to become more energy independent and a leading exporter of renewable power.

"To transport the wind blades, to install the wind turbines, and then also all the jobs it would take to upgrade the transmission lines to handle that high percent of renewables, then there's more than enough positions," he said.

Louie noted coal jobs have become increasingly at risk because of falling natural-gas prices and new EPA rules targeting coal-fired power plants to limit climate pollution. He said if the U.S. goes completely renewable, some 6,500 workers in Wyoming, and 75,000 nationally, will need to find new jobs.

The solar industry already employs more than 200,000 people and is creating jobs 12 times faster than the overall economy, according to the study, which also determined closest equivalent solar positions and salaries. Louie said a coal operations engineer, for example, could retrain to be a manufacturing technician in solar and expect about a ten percent salary increase.

"Obviously there are some jobs that are very specific to coal mining, and those workers will probably need some retraining to find a job in the renewable-energy industry," he added.

The study also found that a coal CEO's annual salary would be more than enough to retrain every company employee for a job in renewables. Louie added other possible funding sources include federal and state dollars, and he said coal workers also could choose to pay for training themselves.

The full report can be read here.


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