Today in Labor History April 3, 1891: Deputized members of the National Guard fired on immigrant strikers in the Morewood massacre, in Pennsylvania. They killed at least ten workers and injured dozens more. The workers were organized with the new United Mine Workers, and were fighting Henry Clay Frick, the same industrialist responsible for the massacre at Homestead the following year, and the man who anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate, also in 1892.
Global coal capacity is 2143 GW. There was 25 GW of retirements last year, which sounds like it will take forever to close down all coal plants.
However renewables grew with 585 GW last year. That's a lot. I'm hopeful nearly all coal plants will shut down quickly when renewables reach a critical mass. It could happen any decade now.
Gee, I wonder how this will go...
Dirtiest US Coal-Fired Power Plant Applies for EPA Exemption
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-02/dirtiest-us-coal-fired-power-plant-applies-for-epa-s-exemption
Today in Labor History April 2, 1840: Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist was born. He was also a liberal activist, playing a significant role in the political liberalization of France, and in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer falsely convicted and imprisoned on trumped up, antisemitic charges of espionage. He was also a significant influence on mid-20th century journalist-authors, like Thom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion. Wolfe said that his goal in writing fiction was to document contemporary society in the tradition of Steinbeck, Dickens, and Zola.
Zola wrote dozens of novels, but his most famous, Germinal, about a violently repressed coalminers’ strike, is one of the greatest books ever written about working class rebellion. It had a huge influence on future radicals, especially anarchists. Some anarchists named their children Germinal. Rudolf Rocker had a Yiddish-language anarchist journal in London called Germinal, in the 1910s. There were also anarchist papers called Germinal in Mexico and Brazil in the 1910s.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #zola #germinal #anarchism #writer #fiction #strike #dreyfus #antisemitism #rebellion #novel #author #books #france #mining #coal #journalism @bookstadon
![Poster by Léon Choubrac advertising the publication of Zola's novel Germinal in Gil Blas, 25 November 1884. By Léon Choubrac (1847-1885) - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1672934](https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/268/902/757/273/518/original/21b61cb60100baed.jpg "Poster by Léon Choubrac advertising the publication of Zola's novel Germinal in Gil Blas, 25 November 1884. By Léon Choubrac (1847-1885) - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1672934")
Finland Ending Use of Coal as Last Utility-Scale Plant Shuts Down https://www.byteseu.com/884820/ #Biomass #Coal #Finland #HeatPump #Helen #Helsinki #RenewableEnergy #Renewables #SalmisaariPowerPlant
Deep fear in coal country: DOGE cuts put region's miners and families on edge
"The facility long entrusted with the protection of workers is among 34 centers in the United States that are expected to be shuttered in sweeping cuts to the federal agency that have not been felt in years.
In an ongoing effort to slash spending, the Department of Government Efficiency has targeted the mining agency in a move that surprised local inspectors"
How Finland has replaced coal power with wind in less than 10 years.
Power utility company Helen officially decommissioned its Salmisaari plant in Helsinki on 1 April, dropping coal to a less than 1% share of the country’s energy mix.
The closure of a coal power plant in Finland today brings the country to the brink of a full coal phase-out - four years ahead of schedule.
"The closure of a #coal power plant in #Finland today brings the country to the brink of a full coal phase-out - four years ahead of schedule.
Alongside reducing emissions and increasing energy independence, it says the switch is also helping it to cut customers' electricity bills.
A surge in wind energy and government policy changes have led to a collapse of coal power in Finland in recent years."
Træk af en bæredygtig udvikling, jeg godt kan leve med:
Hurtig udfasning af kul. Gerne foran tidsplanen.
Og det er i øvrigt heller ikke helt ringe rent sikkerhedspolitisk.
#DkFedi #ClimateEmegerncy #Coal #Sustainability #SustainableDevelopment #Energy
Finland phases out coal, ahead of schedule:
“Imported fossil energy has been replaced with cleaner solutions that reduce climate emissions, while consumers benefit from lower energy prices”
“As Finland previously relied primarily on coal imported from Russia, the phase-out has also boosted Finland’s energy independence and, therefore, national security.”
Today, Helsinki's last coal fired CHP shut down for good after a one-year extension. It and the remaining two coal plants elsewhere produced less than 1% of Finland's energy over 2024.
#energy #coal #renewables
https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/04/01/finland-ahead-of-schedule-on-coal-phase-out-as-helsinkis-salmisaari-plant-closes
Europe one step closer to clean energy as #Helsinki ditches #coal: The near-complete phase-out of #coal puts Finns in a league with countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden. https://www.euractiv.com/section/eet/news/europe-one-step-closer-to-clean-energy-as-helsinki-ditches-coal/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=dlvr.it
Europe one step closer to clean energy as #Helsinki ditches #coal: The near-complete phase-out of #coal puts Finns in a league with countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden. https://www.euractiv.com/section/eet/news/europe-one-step-closer-to-clean-energy-as-helsinki-ditches-coal/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=dlvr.it
But cars require roads.
Road infrastructure gobbles up gigantic quantities of steel cement and , indirectly, coal.
Cement works use any fuel - oil, gas, household waste. Old tyres in particular are very popular.
But on a global scale they burn mainly coal (70% of their fuel acc to the IEA, 90% acc to cement manufactures.
This is handy stuff—especially if you're thinking about buying a car! (3/3)
‘Operators of power plants that burn #coal or #oil, linked to tens of thousands of deaths each year in the US via the mercury, arsenic and other carcinogens emitted through their air pollution, have until Monday to ask #Trump to allow them to bypass clean air laws.’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/epa-trump-email-fossil-fuel-exemptions
Today In Labor History March 27, 1904: The authorities kicked Mother Jones out of Colorado for “stirring-up” striking coal miners. Earlier in March, the authorities deported 60 striking miners from Colorado. In June, they arrested 22 in Telluride. For nearly 2 years, strikers, led by the Western Federation of Miners, were violently attacked by Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts detectives. 33 strikers were killed. At least two scholars have said “There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904.”
Before & after
A drone view shows coal prepared for transport, along the Kanawha river outside of Charleston, West Virginia. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
