Aug 22, 2020 3 min read

For the coal industry and people employed within it, these are sobering times.

In late July, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that coal production in 2019 fell to the lowest level since 1978 – and it was low that year thanks to a coal miner’s strike that brought production to a grinding halt for three months.

Despite President Trump’s vows to boost the coal industry, production is expected to be down again this year, hitting levels last seen in the 1960s. Coal, along with nuclear power, is heading into the twilight not because of government regulations or a “war” against it, but simply because the marketplace has decided that other forms of energy, such as natural gas and renewables, are cheaper and cleaner.

A 2017 story in The Washington Post pointed out that the Arby’s fast-food chain now employs more people than the entire coal industry, and coal jobs seem likely to continue to disappear in the years ahead. But those jobs could well be replaced – and then some – by jobs in the clean energy sector.

According to a report released this week by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, clean energy jobs increased in Pennsylvania by 8.7% in the two-year span stretching from 2017 to 2019. That was significantly higher than the 1.9% rate of overall job growth in the commonwealth. Of course, some of those jobs could well have been lost in recent months, as the coronavirus has devastated economies here and around the world. But COVID-19 will not be with us forever, economies will eventually heal and clean energy will almost certainly remain in a strong position to provide employment.

The Pennsylvania Clean Energy Employment Report, commissioned by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said clean energy jobs made up 36% percent of the state’s overall energy sector last year, with the biggest employment numbers in businesses related to energy efficiency. The 27 wind farms that dot the horizon at various points in Pennsylvania employ close to 3,000 of the state’s residents.

In the same period when clean energy jobs were growing, according to the report, employment in nuclear power in Pennsylvania dipped by 5.4%, fueled by the shuttering of the Three Mile Island plant, and coal employment dropped by 8.6%.

Employment in clean energy is also growing beyond Pennsylvania’s borders. A report last year from the group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) estimated that, across the United States, workers in clean energy outnumber those in the fossil fuel industry by 3-to-1. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that employment in wind and solar technology will be among the fastest-growing jobs in the 2020s.

Since at least the 1970s, clean energy has been viewed with disdain by people who believe it’s the bailiwick of do-gooders and tree-huggers. But there’s no denying that it’s better for the air that we breathe and our climate.

It turns out, it’s also where the jobs are.