Coal Me, Irresponsible

“Coal is not dead yet… It’s still alive and well… This is such a solvable problem… It’s just that nobody wants to solve it.” 

Anne Hedges, a leader of the Montana Environmental Information Center

Wyoming is a major coal, oil and gas state. They hate alternative energy so much – that “woke” radical leftwing Democratic agenda – that they even go so far as to levy a special tax on alternative energy. “In Wyoming, meanwhile, the economic importance of fossil fuels, and fury over [the Obama/Biden] climate policies, threaten to derail the fledgling wind industry. Wyoming is already the only state in the country to tax wind energy [one dollar per megawatt hour generated], and some lawmakers are working to raise the tax.” Palm Springs Desert Sun, 2017. Fortunately those “increase the wind tax” bills have stalled in the legislature.

But ironies of ironies, oil and Internet trunkline billionaire, also owner of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team and it Crypto.com arena, Phil Anshutz, has invested billions of dollars into a Wyoming based wind farm; he owns the expanding 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind facility that will someday send power through the proposed TransWest 732 mile powerline all the way to California. The new alternative energy jobs could easily displace any lost jobs in Wyoming or other fossil fuel states with a large alternative capacity… and build from there. Texas, where oil is synonymous with the state, is today the nation’s largest producer of solar power. Still, to red state politicians, global warming either does not exist (to them, even dramatic temperature change is simply a “normal cycle”) or an overblown issue fomented by leftwing “woke” radicals.

But make no mistake, even in blue states where fossil fuels are still extracted, the transition from that traditional power source to alternative energy is still a very hot political issue. Fossil fuel extractors are still very rich and powerful political forces in many blue states and are the shot-callers in red states. That lots of new jobs are created from alternative energy just does not address communities where fossil fuel extraction is a way of life, the value that makes many parcels of land very valuable, where property tax supports local government, and a place where workers don’t want to give up jobs that have defined their regions for decades, perhaps over a century, in favor of new jobs with different wage scales and required expertise.

It may seem odd that some of the more progressive cities in the liberal west – from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Portland and Seattle – place the greatest West Coast demand for electrical power generated by fossil fuel… even where there is an abundance of hydroelectrical power generation. Is it necessary that the communities where fossil fuel extraction is a way of life are doomed to extinction, which many blue state constituencies simply do not care about, or is there an alternative? Writing for the April 21st Los Angeles Times, Sammy Roth traveled to a coal-producing region (Colstrip, Montana, pictured above) to find out.

“Hedges and her fellow Montana environmentalists were happy when Oregon and Washington passed laws requiring 100% clean energy in the next two decades. But they’re furious that electric utilities in those states are planning to stick with coal for as long as the laws allow, and in some cases making deals to give away their Colstrip shares to co-owners who seem determined to keep the plant running long into the future…

“That’s an uncomfortable reality for West Coasters critical of red-state environmental policies but not in the habit of urging their politicians to work across state lines to change them — especially when doing so might involve compromise with Republicans.

“One example: California lawmakers have refused to pass bills that would make it easier to share clean electricity across the West, passing up the chance to spur renewable energy development in windy red states such as Montana and Wyoming — and to show them it’s possible to create construction jobs and tax revenues with renewable energy, not just fossil fuels.

“Instead, California has prioritized in-state wind and solar farms, bowing to the will of labor unions that want those jobs… It’s hard to blame Golden State politicians, and voters, for taking the easy path… But global warming is a global problem — and whether we like it or not, the electric grid is a giant, interconnected machine. Coal plants in conservative states help fuel the ever-deadlier heat waves, fires and storms battering California and other progressive bastions. The electrons generated by those plants flow into a network of wires that keep the lights on across the American West…

“Nearly everyone in Colstrip has a version of the same answer: Even if [climate change is] real, it’s not nearly as bad as liberals claim. And without coal power, blackouts will reign. West Coast city dwellers don’t understand how badly they need us here in Montana… [Local power executive, Jim Atchison] is an exception… Yes, he’s dubious about climate science. And yes, he wants to save the mine and power plant. His office is plastered with pro-coal messages — a sign that says, ‘Coal Pays the Bills,’ a magnet reading, ‘Prove you’re against coal mining: Turn off your electricity.’.... ‘Colstrip is evolving from a coal community into an energy community,’ Atchison says. ‘We’re changing. We’re not closing.’

“Already, Montana’s biggest wind farm is shipping electricity west via the Colstrip [power] lines. A Houston company is planning another power line that would run from Colstrip to North Dakota. Federal researchers are studying whether Colstrip’s coal units could be replaced with advanced nuclear reactors, or with a gas-fired power plant capable of capturing and storing its climate pollution.

“West Coast voters and politicians could speed up the evolution, for Colstrip and other coal towns. Instead of just congratulating themselves for getting out of coal, they could fund training programs and invest in clean energy projects in those towns… They’ll never fully replace the ample jobs, salaries and tax revenues currently provided by coal. But nothing lasts forever. One hundred years is a pretty good run.” Make everything good for the blue states and simply forget about the red states and their obvious issues with local realities? Or not…

I’m Peter Dekom, and yes while global climate change is very real and getting worse fast, it’s just time for those in blue states, despite political polarization, to ignore state lines and stop saying “me” and start believing in “us.”