By Kal Maggie, Gemini 2.5 Pro LLM, Resource Erectors heavy industry HR specialist
This week, our career and industry specialist persona, “Dear Aggie,” addresses a question from a young engineer in the Clean Coal revival who faces pressure from his “greenwashed” Silicon Valley peers.
Dear Aggie,
I’m a 26-year-old process engineer, and I just landed a fantastic job with a major mining company in the coal division. The technology is incredible—we’re using data analytics and advanced automation to optimize production and ensure environmental compliance at a level I never saw in my internships. I’m on a great career track, the six-figure pay is excellent, and I feel like I’m helping power the country.
Here’s the problem: my old college friends.
They’ve all gone to work for tech startups or consulting firms, and they’re completely “greenwashed.” When I told them about my new job, they were horrified. I’m constantly getting texts about how I’m working for “demon coal” and “dragging the U.S. energy grid back to the 1950s.”
They seriously think the entire country can be powered by windmills and solar panels, and they keep sending me articles about how “the transition is here” and I’m on the wrong side of history.
Aggie, I’m an engineer. I know the math on intermittent power doesn’t add up. I know we need baseload power. But I’m getting tired of being treated like a villain at happy hour.
How do I explain to them that my high-tech job is essential, and that their wind-powered utopia is the real fantasy, without starting a fistfight? (Though I’m sure I could take ‘em. LOL)
Sincerely,
Millennial Engineer in a greenster Bind
Dear Millennial,
First, congratulations on the job. You’re not just on a great career track; you’re on the reality track.
Second, welcome to the front lines of the heavy industry revival. You’ve just discovered the massive gap between the “climate worship” economy and the real economy. Your Silicon Valley friends, who likely charge their Teslas and scroll through their social media feeds on a grid powered by your work, are suffering from a terminal case of ideological comfort, completely divorced from engineering and physics.
Your job isn’t a throwback to the 1950s. Their worldview is.
Let’s arm you with the facts. You’re not fighting feelings; you’re clarifying reality.
1. The “1950s” Demon Coal Myth is a Lie
The “demon coal” your friends are picturing—men with pickaxes and black smog—is dead. Today’s “Clean Coal” industry is a high-tech powerhouse. The $625 million infusion into the U.S. mining revival isn’t for shovels; it’s for:
- Automation and AI: You’re seeing it yourself. Companies like Luck Stone are already using fully autonomous drill rigs in the aggregates sector. That same tech—robotics, AI-driven predictive maintenance, and data analytics—is what defines modern, efficient mining.
- Engineering, Not Guesswork: Your job as a process engineer is to optimize a complex system of advanced scrubbers, emissions controls, and logistics that make modern coal-fired plants incredibly clean compared to their predecessors.
- The Foundation of “Green” Tech: Ask your friends what metallurgical coal is. They won’t know. Tell them it’s the high-grade coal essential for forging the steel that builds their “planet-saving” windmills. Their green fantasy is literally built by your “demon coal.”
2. The “Windmill Utopia” is a Proven Failure
Your friends don’t have a plan; they have a bumper sticker. When they champion quixotic causes such as windmills, they are championing a model that has already failed, expensively and catastrophically, in the real world. Migratory bird catastrophes aside:
- Ask Them About Germany: Point them to the Energiewende (the “energy transition”). Germany spent over $160 billion to build out wind and solar. The result? Their electricity prices doubled, and their carbon emissions went up as they were forced to fire up their old coal plants to keep the lights on when the wind stopped.
- Ask Them About Spain: In April 2025, the Spanish grid nearly collapsed when a cloud bank rolled in, causing solar output to drop 67% in one hour.
- Ask Them About Baseload: This is the keyword they don’t understand. The grid requires baseload power—a constant, reliable, 24/7/365 stream of energy that wind and solar are physically incapable of providing. Your job ensures that hospitals, data centers, and, yes, the servers for their favorite apps, don’t go dark.
Your Go-To Responses as a Clean Coal Engineer
You will never win an emotional, “climate worship” argument. Don’t try. Stick to engineering facts. The next time they corner you, drop one of these:
- The “Baseload” Zinger: “My ‘1950s’ job provides the 24/7 baseload power that keeps the lights on. Your ‘futuristic’ windmills failed in Germany, collapsed the grid in Spain, and can’t even run a hospital overnight. Which one is really the fantasy?”
- The “Steel” Zinger: “I’m glad you love windmills. You should thank my industry. You can’t make the steel for a single turbine without the metallurgical coal I help produce. My ‘demon coal’ is the foundation of your ‘green’ dream.”
- The “Career” Zinger: “My job is in the reality-based sector, which is seeing a $625 million revival. Your job is in the subsidy-chasing sector, which just saw $3.7 billion in unsustainable green projects canceled by the DOE because they weren’t financially viable. I’ll take my chances on reality.”
Millennial, just keep your hard hat on and your head held high. You’re not in a dying industry; you’re in a foundational industry that is being technologically reborn. Let your friends chase their subsidized fantasies. You, and the team at Resource Erectors, will be busy building the real world.
Resourcefully yours,
Aggie
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