Defending coal is a losing hand

The Legislature's efforts to buttress coal ignore global realities

"The climate is changing. Man is an influence. I think where there's debate on it is what that influence is [and] what can we do about it." -- Interior Secretary-nominee Ryan Zinke at his confirmation hearing this week.

By D. Reed Eckhardt
One has to wonder whether Wyoming's lawmakers live in an alternate reality -- particularly on the issue of energy.

All around them, the facts continue to mount. Scientific consensus overwhelming says man-made climate change is happening, even accelerating. Jobs and output in the state's energy sectors continue to decline as America and the world turn away from carbon-based fuels. Proposed federal coal leases don't even get a sniff. Even President-elect Donald Trump's nominees agree climate change is real and that man's spewing of greenhouse gasses is part of the problem.

Yet how does the Legislature respond? By trying to find ways to buttress the state's weakening coal industry. The most recent effort is Senate File 71 (http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Introduced/SF0071.pdf). It would forbid utilities in the state from providing any electricity that comes from large-scale solar or wind projects.

This map shows the number of wind energy-related jobs in 2015.

And let's not forget last spring's failed attempt to increase the state's tax on wind energy to make it less competitive with coal.

It's as if lawmakers think they can erect dikes all around the state to keep out the flood of reality. Coal is not going to come back. Wyoming needs another economic model besides being America's carbon energy banana republic. This state's leaders have to get with the program rather than demanding that the program gets with Wyoming. This state is not bigger than global trends, period.

What is so frustrating about all of this is: The state has options. Rather than fighting the development of wind energy, lawmakers might consider boosting it instead. Had they done so years ago, perhaps all of those coal workers and their families who now have fled the state could be working in the wind industry instead. And with Wyoming's abundance of sun -- the state offers more than 3,000 sunny hours a year, among the nation's leaders -- how about pushing for the development of that renewable energy source?

Besides, study after study shows future job growth is in renewable -- not carbon-based -- fuels. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2012 there were not even 1 million coal/oil gas jobs nationally. At the same time, there were 3.4 million green jobs. That is expected to boom in years to come. It also should be noted that carbon-based industries don't grow a lot of employment. For every $1 million in output of coal, for example, 1.9 jobs are created. The wind, on the other hand, generates 4.6 jobs per $1 million in production and solar, 5.4. https://citizensclimatelobby.org/laser-talks/jobs-fossil-fuels-vs-renewables/

Last year, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead declared that he was going to double down on coal. You can double down on a losing poker hand, too, but you still will lose. Yet lawmakers continue to stand pat. It makes no sense.

Someone in legislative leadership needs to shake him or herself awake and face present realities. It is great that Wyoming is No. 1 in coal production. But how about being No. 1 in renewables production as well? Let's be the nation's energy leader, not just its carbon-fuels energy leader. That, friends, would be a winning hand.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.