Read on Twitter
I've been thinking about @jdsutter story about coal communities and the energy transition in recent days.
And here's the thing that I think gets missed: They have to want change to make it happen. That simply hasn't been the case.
Let me explain. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/opinions/biden-climate-change-gillette-wyoming-coal-sutter/index.html
And here's the thing that I think gets missed: They have to want change to make it happen. That simply hasn't been the case.
Let me explain. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/opinions/biden-climate-change-gillette-wyoming-coal-sutter/index.html
I've been writing about Gillette for years now. When I started out around 2014, the thought there was that the country was making a terrible mistake.
Eventually, the thinking went, the country would realize it needed coal. https://trib.com/business/energy/gillette-weathering-a-historic-downturn-remains-faithful-to-coal/article_e388183b-6c62-55d0-82ad-a23f5398e186.html
Eventually, the thinking went, the country would realize it needed coal. https://trib.com/business/energy/gillette-weathering-a-historic-downturn-remains-faithful-to-coal/article_e388183b-6c62-55d0-82ad-a23f5398e186.html
Slowly, people began to begin to talk about diversification. But diversification in the context of Gillette, was largely in the context of new ways to do new things with coal. https://trib.com/business/energy/gillette-weathering-a-historic-downturn-remains-faithful-to-coal/article_e388183b-6c62-55d0-82ad-a23f5398e186.html
This really boiled down to two things: CCS for coal plants and turning coal into carbon products. Think carbon water filters, for instance.
Here is a story I did from 2016, a year that included mass layoffs and a steep decline in coal production. Wyoming began to flirt with the idea that it might need to do something different. https://trib.com/business/energy/when-coal-disappears-can-wyoming-move-on/article_2f227686-f996-584b-8dd1-a0a95350e984.html
The problem here is two-fold. CCS on coal fired power plants makes little economic sense when the plants are 40+ years old. There are exceptions like Wyodak, but most American coal plants are just old.
Then you have carbon products. There is a real market there and real opportunity. But if you talk to real smart people like Jim Ford, who has been promoting carbon products, he'll tell you up front that carbon products are no substitute for the mining industry that exists today
And that hints at the larger challenge. There really isn't a new industry that can just move in and single handedly replace the jobs and tax revenues provided by coal.
I went back to Gillette in 2019. Feels like a lifetime ago now. And there was a subtle change. There was a growing recognition that the coal industry was a shadow of its former self.
But there was still a sense that the country would need PRB coal for the coming decade if not longer. https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1061462819
The issue here is that even if this projection bears out, which is very much in question, Wyoming and Campbell County's tax structure is very much based upon a thriving coal industry.
You can't have gleaming new schools, athletic centers, etc. in perpetuity if coal falters
You can't have gleaming new schools, athletic centers, etc. in perpetuity if coal falters
In fairness to Campbell County, they have done some strong financial planning to pay for the gleaming buildings built in recent decades.
But the larger issue of how to fund all the programs and services, both locally and at the state level, remain.
But the larger issue of how to fund all the programs and services, both locally and at the state level, remain.
Of course, this issue is not Gillette specific. We've seen it in coal communities across the country. In AZ, we saw a sustained effort from the Navajo Nation and leaders in Page to keep Navajo Generating Station and Kayenta Mine open. They closed.
Those communities got left high and dry, and had little preparation for having their tax and economic structure pulled out from underneath them. https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1061970419/
New Mexico is making a real effort to try to plan for this transition. But even there a lot of the same issues persist. It's telling though that many plant workers and miners have little faith in the long-shot CCS project that has been proposed. https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1061977471
I guess the point here is, Biden and Co. can make a big "just transition" push. But without buy-in from these communities, those efforts face a steep uphill challenge.
One last thing. I'm not saying that coal communities have to go and roll over for Biden, or accept everything that he and other Democrats propose.
What I am saying is they need to come up with their own vision for what the future looks like in a world with little or no coal.
What I am saying is they need to come up with their own vision for what the future looks like in a world with little or no coal.
