The Nation’s Biggest Miner Union Is Ready for a Transition to Clean Energy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Monday, the nation’s largest union of coal miners announced that it’s down for the shift to renewable energy as long the transition includes aid—and new jobs—for workers laid off from their sector. It’s the latest sign that workers aren’t buying the fossil fuel industry’s narrative that it’s a great protector of U.S. jobs.
“As we confront a next wave of energy transition, we must take steps now to ensure that things do not get worse for coal miners, their families and communities, but in fact get better,” Cecil E. Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, said in a statement .
At a press conference, union officials also unveiled a plan for “preserving coal country” as the world transitions to clean energy. They stood beside Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, who endorsed their demands for the move to clean energy, marking a sharp turn from his history of defending the coal industry at all costs. (Manchin infamously once shot a bullet through a copy of a major Congressional climate bill in a political ad.) At the press event, Manchin also backed the PRO Act, a transformative bill to increase labor protections .
The announcement flies in the face of the jobs vs. environment argument that extractive industry and its allies have pushed for decades as a way to claim that climate regulations must be avoided at all costs. In truth, of course, the sector has been laying off workers all on its own without any new environmental regulations.
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Manchin changes his tune. Huh...
Guess they are finally willing to se the writing on the wall.
Sounds like they want to speak up now instead of falling into irrelevance.
It was only a matter of time.
Reality finally sinks in, even for Joe Manchin.
The article mentions WV and Appalachia but the Powder River Basin in WY produces more coal and is facing the same problems almost every mining company there has declared bankruptcy.
I'm for investing in the coal miners to be able to transition to a new world.
I say build a needed plant in the area, if possible.
A plant that could make things that the new world would need.
Hemp. They can grow it in the mountains and turn it into all kinds of products
And have niche shops.
Exactly! And then they could market that to tourists. WV is a beautiful state and everyone should see it. And when you're done hiking and avoiding black bears, go into town and do a little shopping
I have been there. It is beautiful.
Definitely something they could take advantage of.
West Virginia should hire us as their PR people
Preserve coal country? Like as in reclaiming mining sites especially strip mine sites where they tore off whole tops of mountains?
As for the UMW I say good for them. It took them long enough to realize that their jobs weren't coming back. I wonder if they remember who told them that?
Bout goddamn time. You guys are only a few decades behind, should have started making this transition in the 90s.