New Orleans               Recently, we talked to an old comrade, Tom Sanzillo, who with his organization has helped provide the research and economic analysis that has gained increasing traction in the campaign to decrease burning coal, because it’s cheaper to use alternative sources.  Most of us are clear that this is huge progress, not just because of climate warming, but also for those of us who care about protecting the American West and other fragile and beautiful environments.

An interesting break in this fight is not only the Bureau of Land Management’s refusal to lease more federal land for coal, but also the fact that some state regulators are blocking utilities from recouping costs of using coal in power generation by passing on the higher costs to consumers.  Michigan’s PUC led the way with support from their attorney general, but in a surprise, Louisiana also broke ground here.

…an administrative judge recommended that state regulators reject a request from two utilities that wanted to recover more than $180 million in fuel costs from ratepayers stemming from a coal-fired plant that was shut down in 2021.  The judge found that the utilities fed their customers high-cost power from a mine that they also owned.  The utilities quadrupled the price of coal to recover an investment made to the mine….  After the judge’s recommendation, the utilities Cleco Power and Southwestern Electric Power Company, agreed to refund $60 million to their customers and to abandon efforts to costs….

These states are pointing the way. We need a lot more of this in the United States.

There’s also a lot more under the ground worth our worry and protection, as I read a piece forwarded by a colleague about the feverish rush by companies all over the world to mine precious minerals to fuel the energy transition.  Companies – and countries, including the US – seem to be falling all over themselves to gobble up resources in copper, lithium, and other minerals needed for batteries, among other things.  Today, 60% of power generation still comes from coal, oil, and gas, but these outfits are betting they will make literally trillions of dollars in the next several decades on retrofits and transitions.  Some believe by 2050, we may need as many as 190 new large scale copper mines worldwide to feed the demands of electric battery production for vehicles and other uses.

Colleagues and friends with the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils have been trying to hold hard rock mining companies of these precious minerals in Montana and the West for decades, and it’s not easy.  The reports of mining company impunity, dangerous working conditions, paltry pay and subcontracting to informal workers, and environmental degradation come from countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well.  Local organizations and communities all over the world to not exist simply for exploitation.  Recently, ACORN Peru was asked for help from a community several hours outside of Lima that is surrounded by mining concessions.  They were looking for advice on what to do with the 1800 hectares they own:  negotiate, sell, or mine themselves.  It’s a difficult dilemma, with no clear path for protection or support for the community from the Peruvian government.  That’s not exceptional, but standard operating procedure for communities everywhere.

We have to deal with climate change, but we can’t sacrifice communities and the environment while doing so.  Surely, we’ve learned that lesson by now?  If we have, we need to demand real regulation every step of the way, not just during election years, when it may be too late to save either people or their precious parts of the planet.