Coal: Miners need help in new energy economy

Re: “Ocasio-Cortez invited to tour Kentucky coal mines,” (TNT, 3/27).

Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr’s invitation to New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to tour a Kentucky coal mine and meet with unemployed miners is a good effort by Barr, if he’s realistic about coal’s future.

The miners are out-of-work because coal, a fossil fuel, is a dying industry. It’s being replaced by cheaper, more abundant natural gas, another fossil fuel.

Barr should reread the part of the Green New Deal, co-sponsored by Ocasio-Cortez, that addresses replacing fossil fuels, the chief contributors to global warming, with clean, renewable energy.

Currently, jobs in wind, solar, energy efficiency and storage outpace jobs in the fossil fuel industry 2.5 to 1, and that number is growing.

Barr should recognize this and work hard to bring such jobs to his district.

Coal is dying. It’s in the past. Renewable energy is our future. It’s where the jobs are, and will be.