>> How about some manufacturing jobs for solar panels and such?

Certainly I believe that a solar array would be cheap, easily maintained and highly productive in the endless wastelands of Arizona or similar, unlike snowy cloudy German cities where it was a stupid idea.

In the meantime my power utility buddies tell me you always need something to burn because nothing else can react as quickly- even nukes whose economics don't always allow spare capacity for a rainy day.

The US has burned a lot of coal but natural gas is cheap enough in the US today that the coal advantage is slim, which actually has caused a huge decrease in US emissions because gas burns so much cleaner. Unless coal can come up with very clean burners and cheaper extraction, good business dictates that its renaissance may be short-lived.