I read Wyoming stories because I grew up there, my dad’s job and my education financed by taxes on carbon. There are ways it is still home. All of #energytwitter should read this story, too. The human dimensions of energy transitions are very real. 1/ https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/opinions/biden-climate-change-gillette-wyoming-coal-sutter/index.html

As @AlexSteffen keeps harping, we are entering a singularity, in which the foundations of our society and economy, the geographies of our realities, the systems we inhabit, reform themselves around new forms of energy technology. Gillette, WY, is the tip of that spear. 2/

That spear will reach everywhere. Every town in America and around the globe has a carbon industry: gas stations, auto repair shops and parts dealers, people who work in oil and gas supply chains, etc. The disruption coming is enormous. 3/

At this point, as a nation, let alone as communities, we know remarkably little about what is coming. Worse, the people and communities in this space are being left largely to navigate the transition on their own. If Gillette, which is front and center, can’t get help …? 4/

@POTUS said at the inauguration, “There are some days that we need a hand.” A whole lot of people are about to need a hand. And while the feds need to act, this isn’t just a problem for the feds. @Apple and @Google are buying clean energy - where are they on a #justtransition 5/

A year ago, @blackrock CEO Fink said "we cannot leave behind parts of society” in the #EnergyTransition - yet in the reviews of their ESG progress, I’ve seen critiques of their lack of progress to end coal, but none asking for programs to foster #SocialJustice in coal country. 6/

Nor is a #justtransition encompassed by the future of those who work in the carbon economy (did you know that we don’t even have a comprehensive picture, as a nation, of what the carbon economy looks like?). Far more is at stake than the future of carbon workers. 7/

Energy supply chains are rife with injustice. A #justtransition needs to end that. They foster and exacerbate inequality. That needs to end, too. Energy has shaped democracy, political economy, security. That won’t change, although the shapes of those things will. 8/

#energytransition is human transition, societal transition. Asking “how do we get clean energy?” is no longer enough. We need to start asking “what kinds of futures, of worlds, of societies are we building for our children alongside the new energy systems we are building?” 9/

What makes this story illuminating is not only compelling writing, but that it makes clear the complexities of the human transformations under way. Creating new jobs and job training programs are wholly inadequate. We need a whole-of-society approach to #justtransition planning.