Gillette, Wyoming, is the coal energy capital of the United States. And residents like Steve Gray fear it will become a ghost town under President Joe Biden. CNN contributor John Sutter asks: In the fight against the climate crisis, what do we owe the workers who have helped power America for decades?
#ClimateChange #CNN #News
This town powered America for decades. What do we owe them?
More people work at Arby’s than in the American coal industry.
@William Kinnunen Fast food is worse than most drugs IMO
@William Kinnunen I’m not a Bezos or Gates fan, but aren’t they entitled to their own property…because they are “rich” theft is justified? Seems kind of criminal to me
@carlkil Taxation is not theft. And how did these men accumulate their wealth? Jeff Bezos makes 3000 times what an entry level person at Amazon makes. Does that means he works 3000 times harder?
@William Kinnunen Oh boy
Arby’s doesn’t produce 40% of the nations energy. You sit in a city somewhere using up resources another man broke a sweat to produce. When your lights shut off don’t look for help at Arby’s.
The horse and buggy industry had to change also.
But what about all the horse and buddy builders- they will never find a job with the auto industry. The gas powered buggies will never catch on
Sorry just commenting on your thread about my frustration:
Everyone seems to forget all the other products that use fossil fuels.
We only talk about vehicles-
Millions of products can be replaced 100% by using Hemp.
Example:
Plastic bags, plastic packaging in every product will never break down. It will be here longer than the earth.
Hemp plastics can replace all of then and breaks down.
Hemp can also make a dent in the dependency on fossil fuels.
We need hemp-
One acre of hemp that takes 6 months to grow can replace the pulp from 5 acres of trees that take 50 years to grow.
Sorry again for bitching on your thread, just need more people to push for hemp
@Jeffrey Leung You had wrote: ” renewable energy would make it arguably more eco-friendly than horses”
I would strongly disagree with that one.
From the mine to the very end- toxic waste is dumped in our atmosphere and land to feed our desire for natural elements.
@Robert J. Williamson that’s a completly different argument to make… my point to todays electric cars at least the fancy shiny ones are as unsustainable as conventional ones maybe in a different way but nevertheless…
And to this city project in saudi arabia they have been talking about plans for something like this since the early 90ies and good luck with that. But still it would be a very interesting concept to see working… the other thing to keep in mind about this is Saudi Arabia is not a democracy it’s easier in a system like they have to tell people “that’s what the kingdom allows and be contempt with it”…. those are all factors that play into such things.
Here in Germany the government decides 2 decades ago to finally abandon coal. The solution was that many years ago the coal mines just stopped hiring people. The remaining coal miners worked until retirement or until they found a new job which often happend in most cases. We did not have to wait until they got 65.
Industries evolve. Towns that exist due to a single industry will always be at risk.
I don’t really get the no fault of their own part. The writing has been on the wall about coal for a long time. I don’t claim to know all the nuances, but hasn’t there been time to make provisions to do something else? It doesn’t take the government for that.
@Kisha D Yes. This has been a topic of conversation for a long time and is no different from industries past that occurred in similar boom towns. For years these guys have been paid very well and have dirt cheap living expenses, so if you are not financially prepared for this, you must be some kind of fool. I lived in Gillette for 2 years, paying a max of 1200 a month, $14,400 a year for living expenses including my rent and made almost 80k a year driving for Wesco. That is just two years, imagine doing that for decades and complaining about needing government financial assistance. Those jobs will be replaced with even more wind and solar jobs anyway, but if you don’t have the bread to hold you over, that is your problem, not the governments.
I lived in Johnstown and now in pittsburgh, pa. The steel mills left, after not letting other industries in. So you recreate and educate yourself to follow the jobs. You go on.
@Jackson Collins My town was all auto manufacturing for decades. Factories pulled out in the 80’s. They went to Mexico. My town is now a ghost town. Back in my day you graduated high school and either went to the factory to work or you went to college. It’s a sad story but nothing unique when a town depends on one industry for its survival. (The manufacturing industry Trump promised to bring back was never going to happen anyway. Not when you can get non union workers to work for very little. How people bought that is beyond me.)
@ICANDOTHISALLDAY yeah they should all just move to a crappy mega city like everyone else who hates their lives. Who wants to stay in the place that feels like home anyway?
Coal has been declining as shown, the regulations are adding a time line for people to plan for vs. ongoing uncertainty.
If they offer me free land to live and grow my personal business I would go.
This didn’t just begun yesterday. I was educated about emissions when I was in grade school and I’m now 63!
@Mieke Bruin The kite flies in an 8-pattern and pulls the wire which drives the generator on the ground. When it reaches maximum altitude it dives back again to lower altitudes, the wire is rolling back and the process begins again.
The forces are much more powerful than with ground based turbines. The kite behaves like the wing-tip of a giant turbine.
@Hagg Bisquette No I thought we were the lizard people!
@Hagg Bisquette You know some said the rabbit should have won which I believe was rigged race. Think about it folks, a rabbit is fast a turtle is slow right? So tell me how does a turtle beat a rabbit? It doesn’t make sense folks it’s all corrupt The lies start even early as a child. I tell you it never ends next thing you know you’ll find out the turtle supports antifa and black lives matter. [Spoken with Trump’s voice]
If you’re a DEM voter then you are not educated
@Joj Jojo If you’re educated you don’t post silly platitudes but make constructive propositions how to solve the problem of Gillette as I did
They started out with the fear of Biden. Yes they need to meet the modern problems.
They have their heads buried in the sand. Coal will still be on the decline irrespective of who is president. Republicans are just giving them false hope.
@A. Alphbond so are dems dooming us for not embracing fusion power or space habitation. dem and repub are pathetic fools.
@rikilamaru Actually the irony is we could have Coal but to have cleaner coal the profit goes way down.
Did you see the part about wind enrgy: Irony alert- one of the windiest states undermines Wind Energy due to Lobbyists for other enrgy spirces.
@rikilamaru False equivalence is the lowest form of stupid.
You realize going green will take all there jobs away like when we moved manufacturing to China which then caused poverty and drug abuse, we owe these people more than you think so yes we should invest greatly in these towns for green energy infrastructure jobs.
We also owe horse breeders a debt of gratitude.
These people are so full of themselves.
@David Howard Yes, and what did he say after that?
Yet it’s fine to drill or frack on Native American land, dump the nuclear waste, cause whole towns to be destroyed by fracking. Tried moving Native Americans off of their own land and you want us to feel sorry for the industry?
You realize going green will take all there jobs away like when we moved manufacturing to China which then caused poverty and drug abuse, we owe these people more than you think so yes we should invest greatly in these towns for green energy infrastructure jobs.
@Enjaces 2:53 look at the chart… COVID didn’t hit until 2020
@rolback Funny considering you tried overthrowing our government. That’s facism 101 bud….
Clean energy – turn your thoughts in that direction! If you don’t you’re lost!
Clean energy is expensive and hardly practical for a full time source
@Richard Christie you do know its enviromentally worse to mine what goes into lithium batteries than it is to drill for oil
ya can keep youor electric go carts i will keep my V8 truck
@Andrew Richardson totally agree
@Andrew Richardson and some idiot thinks they can re train for jobs in IT not everyone wants to work in the silicone valley echo chamber
Wyoming is the windiest state in the US, yet they don’t take advantage of it.
It’s degrading to ask the government for help, unless it’s me asking.
You realize going green will take all there jobs away like when we moved manufacturing to China which then caused poverty and drug abuse, we owe these people more than you think so yes we should invest greatly in these towns for green energy infrastructure jobs.
@Abbas Timmy The midwest keeps this country running please stop being a ignorant liberal
@Aztec Blood First, the transition has been going on for a decade. You realize loosing the biosphere is a bigger issue, right.
@M M Moving manufacturing to China also took a while, that point was so useless.
@Abbas Timmy the thing is, people far away from cities want to work, they dont want welfare. People in the city who take welfare take it because theyre lazy when they could ride a bus to a job until they get a car.
“This is Trump country” *Biden wins* “Save me Biden, you owe me…”
@C S Nobody is doing what you claim, “treating workers as pariahs”, what you interpret as attacks on workers is simply the act of facing up to the reality that continuing with a fossil fuel based world economy is a doomsday boat.
People who continue to cling to the belief that it’s otherwise have to wake up.
In terms of the political spectrum it’s the left that offer a path forward and means of adaption and it is the right who stubbornly obstruct and insist on business as usual.
@Kit Carson So what did trump do for them? NOTHING! But These people rather hear lies from their Republican politicians who are heavily lobbied by the cole conglomerates than face the truth…which is the coal industry has no future. The sad part of all of this is that Republicans are not worried about the future of coal or these people, they are worried if these states that have been voting red because of lies “false promises” turn blue, it will be the end for them.
@Kit Carson You are very right. I agree with you…attitude matters. You can’t win friends by charging at them. This bad attitude is what the congress is using against each other which is not productive.
@Kit Carson Can you imagine if the congress get along well?…but everybody wants some sort of power.
@Hannah Dyson nor the mental capability’s, tiny hands, hard to actually do much with them itty bitty trump hands soft , big fat belly. long historys of hiring everything done ever since slaves built the capitol and white house they , stormed like the traitors stinking republicans are.
Wow the level of entitlement when people like this tell others to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and now they want to be compensated for industry loss when we’ve been subsidizing this dying industry for years.
@Castrine Cubique I more of feel pity for these people, I’m angry that they woefully uninformed and have been conditioned to be condescending to those who need help and when they need help they feel entitled to it. They need to be able to follow their own advice for a harsh wake up call. The cognitive dissonance is astounding and needs to be addressed.
100% AGREED..!!! WHITE PRIVELDGE IS DEAD..!!! #OBIDIAH2021
We were all warned over 100 years ago not to create a dependance on Fossil fuels. Nobody should say they couldn’t see the writing on the wall and make preparations.
Yet we should illegal immigrates full benefits….smh
They are so dramatic
We owe them an education, healthcare, and a decent life, just like everyone else. This isn’t hard.
So ..that’s why Sanders lost ?!
Because it’s what the USA wants ?
@Hannah Dyson: I think they want it, it’s just that for some reason, Americans have come to believe that there’s a relationship between healthcare and tyranny.
This is good interview, these people need real help not just broken promise like clean coal.
Technology changes. We have to learn to adapt and change too. This piece sounds like a pitty me piece. What do you think happened when people stopped buying typewriters ? Think of all those who lost their jobs because of the change from land lines to cell phones. Wheel wrights, blacksmiths, typesetters. They knew this was coming. They should have seen this a long time ago, but like so many conservatives, they feel entitled and want a handout and a return to status quo. It ain’t gonna happen. Rescue ? yes, … in the form of education and retraining into something other than coal. Wake up and smell the coffee, Trump lied to you about clean coal, and now you’re complaining.
No one shredded a tear when the milk man lost his job
Time for you guys to move on and get with the times
@colonel 100 As a gigalo?
@Cheezy Krafts I was a milk man times got tough yadda yadda yadda. P o r n.
Did you stop drinking milk
@Truck Taxi nope.
I think almond milk is better
Why is America resisting the potential to be part of renewable energy resources?
$
I’m thinking about the people in Dalton who used to make “tufted textiles” and those in North Carolina who used to make furniture and those in Washington who used to work in the lumber industry. Bud, you are just the latest. Time we got som new industry in the US and stopped looking back.
Do you remember Dan River Mills? They made sheets. In the early 80’s they had to shut down. It goes like this. But I think for him to say Joe that is what hit to my heart lol
Imagine how all those Blacksmiths must have felt when they saw Automobiles drive past their shops…
@DriveInFreak I agree here also that this isnt a new development, but just because we saw it happening doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide some sympathy. Peoples entire lives and generations before them lived in these areas and did this work for a living.
Not a good analogy. Fossil fuels are just as effective at creating energy as green energy. Fossil fuels are less expensive than green energy and the federal government didn’t subsidize automobiles.
@Rob wylde Fair enough.
@Jay J. Didn’t subsidize automobiles? Have you heard about the Interstate Highway system? I don’t think that was built with private funds and cars would have a difficult time without roads. That said, as far as this town and the entire coal industry goes we could handle it like the transition away from Longshoremen to the mechanized unloading of ships. All those employees kept getting their salaries until retirement and it was a tiny fraction of the shipping industries’ costs.
@Jay J. Yes, and people used to send messages via telegraph too.
I’m from West Virginia, and hearing, “you see what happened in Appalachia, we don’t want become another story like that” was a punch in the gut. When someone in Wyoming says they’re scared of having your economy, you know it’s pretty fucked.
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