It is important that we balance energy independence with the environmental and cost impact in order to follow through with affordable and clean energy generation. Having a robust plan that addresses short-term and long-term needs is crucial to understanding what is needed, who is impacted and how we can get there.
Del. Suhas Subramanyam put forth a good bill that had a nice write up on his proposal that got passed by the VA House.
energynews.us/…
However, it doesn’t go far enough and fast enough.
Consider some recent stories regarding coal jobs and miners.
www.greenbiz.com/…
Ann Eisenberg has hit a number of very good points. “For communities dependent on fossil fuels, particularly in regions such as Appalachia with few other major industries, today’s job losses are just the latest phase of a long decline.”
Overcoming the resistance to shedding non-metallurgical coal (a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke which is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking) jobs has been a tough nut to crack. Retraining has been difficult, with a sea of red tape and confusion. This is why a plan needs to be developed for SW Virginia.
Jobs and the environment go hand in hand.
It’s easy to say that we can go green, retrain and move forward. It’s easy to say we can quickly rip off the bandage and that will be that. The reality is that it won’t be that easy. Plans have to be made with the counties and regional leaders, money has to become available through grants or private means, environmental impact studies have to be completed and infrastructure needs to be developed. That’s where the state needs to get involved to write the bills, encouraging localities to work with commissions to execute these plans and get members of Congress to pass grants via Department of Agriculture, Energy, Commerce, Interior, Labor and EPA.
When we retrain and train people to to move from carbon jobs to non-carbon jobs, we can move from a carbon-based economy to a non-carbon based economy. We can overcome the objections of “My family have always been coal miners”. Some of those same arguments were used when we moved from horse and carriage to automobiles, when we moved from secretary pools to word processors and when we moved from the Pony Express to air mail. There’s no real barrier to change except for tradition.
THE PLAN
- Train and retrain coal jobs to solar or wind. Guarantee salary difference for 5 years or until the new jobs pay more than the old jobs.
- Utilize new technology and trends to create jobs locally. This should include vertical agriculture, recycling centers and environmental jobs via USDA.
- Generate infrastructure jobs in partnership with the US Department of Transportation to work on expanding mass transit (rail projects).
These are just some of the examples we can use to go green, grow jobs and become a powerhouse in the state of Virginia and the East Coast.