An Energy Department program designed to create jobs and manufacturing in communities reliant on fossil fuels is backing projects in West Virginia, Colorado and elsewhere.
In Weirton, W.Va., in the heart of coal country, a company started by MIT scientists plans to build a plant that will produce a metal and alloy critical for clean energy, fuel cells and cleaner steel.
They’re all projects getting federal funding designed to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers bring clean-energy jobs to former coal communities, part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package signed by President Biden in 2021.
The program is an effort by the Biden administration to win support for its agenda to reduce American dependence on coal, oil and gas, the main drivers of global warming.
But it also points to the broad realization that as the world transitions toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar, workers in fossil-fuel industries — as well as regions that depend on them — risk getting left behind.
Coal mining jobs have declined precipitously over the past decades, and there were less than 50,000 miners left in the United States in 2022, half the number 10 years ago, according to the latest figures from the Energy Information Agency.
Its new West Virginia plant expects to hire 200 to 250 people and will manufacture ultrapure chromium metal and high temperature alloys that are critical materials needed for clean power, fuel cells and steel.
The original article contains 700 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In Weirton, W.Va., in the heart of coal country, a company started by MIT scientists plans to build a plant that will produce a metal and alloy critical for clean energy, fuel cells and cleaner steel.
They’re all projects getting federal funding designed to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers bring clean-energy jobs to former coal communities, part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package signed by President Biden in 2021.
The program is an effort by the Biden administration to win support for its agenda to reduce American dependence on coal, oil and gas, the main drivers of global warming.
But it also points to the broad realization that as the world transitions toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar, workers in fossil-fuel industries — as well as regions that depend on them — risk getting left behind.
Coal mining jobs have declined precipitously over the past decades, and there were less than 50,000 miners left in the United States in 2022, half the number 10 years ago, according to the latest figures from the Energy Information Agency.
Its new West Virginia plant expects to hire 200 to 250 people and will manufacture ultrapure chromium metal and high temperature alloys that are critical materials needed for clean power, fuel cells and steel.
The original article contains 700 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!