Sami Grover on Treehugger.com notes another blow struck against the coal miners:
The latest piece of evidence, reported over at AZ Central, is about the major utilities which own the massive 2,250 megawatt Navajo Generating Station in Arizona—described in the report as one of the largest polluters in the nation. The plan, according to AZ Central, is to shutter the plant by 2019, when one of the three turbines will have to be retired anyway.
And I see Sami has the same concerns I have – but for the Navajo who are losing a major revenue source:
Given the astounding economic, health and environmental impacts of coal, this decision is a major win for environmentalists. But as with any such closures, we should all be calling for support for the communities who have relied on this project—and a nearby coal mine—for income.
In much the same way that Australian unions have joined forces with environmentalists to demand a “just transition” away from coal, we need to make sure that in the shift away from fossil fuels, we create opportunities for all communities to benefit.
A “just transition” in Australian lingo, to me, just means the recognition that we are all in this together; there is nothing wrong in helping out those who are hurt by our transition to cleaner energy sources. In fact, failing to do so is really a betrayal of them. We are not a some faux-Darwinian society in which hell takes the losers, because the losers may rise up and batter down the winners. We originally built societies to hold back forces that could not be handled by individuals, and that rule still holds true.
