Democrat states have plundered these towns for coal for decades – now they’re leaving workers high and dry by switching to green energy

Red state coal cities and towns that power parts of America are facing a reckoning as the country turns to clean energy.

Experts warn that cities like Colstrip, Montana, home to one of the country’s most polluting coal-fired power plants, must replace their coal-fired power plants with green energy — or face economic ruin.

But adapting to clean energy demand is only half the problem.

Colstrip and other plants like it send hundreds of millions of dollars worth of power to West Coast states such as California and Washington. But Democratic leaders are now signing up for their own wind and solar power plants, so they can take their energy supply in-house.

That means that even if cities like Colstrip replace their coal-fired power stations with green alternatives, they won’t enjoy the same demand as before.

Colstrip is a good example of the problems facing dozens of coal towns. Few deny the environmental damage coal causes, but few support closing power plants that are the economic lifeblood of their communities.

About 500 miles south of Colstrip, near Rock Springs, Wyoming, a coal mine that powers Jim Bridger’s massive power plant recently laid off a dozen workers. The plant is switching part of its activities to natural gas, a less harmful alternative.

These devastating job losses are common in the dwindling coal industry.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. coal demand and production has fallen from 1.3 billion tons a decade ago to 870 million tons in 2022.

Employment in U.S. coal mines also shrank by half to about 40,000 workers during that period, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures reported by the Associated Press.

E. Mark Curtis, an economist at Wake Forest University, said, “In places like Texas or the middle of the country where solar and wind energy is plentiful, fossil fuel communities are relatively well positioned to benefit from renewable energy sources.”

“Coal communities generally don’t have that, especially when you think about Appalachia,” he told the New York Times.

For decades, states like California happily sent millions of dollars east to states like Montana in exchange for coal-generated electricity.

But as the Golden State moves toward clean alternatives, lawmakers have also worked to keep new energy facilities — and the energy they generate — within the state.

This has left cities like Colstrip and their employees feeling abandoned.

Plants are also threatened by the federal government’s clean air policies.

The issue came to a head this week when new rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lowered thresholds for the amount of toxic chemicals coal-fired power plants can emit.

It will cost Colstrip Power Plant an estimated $500 million to comply with the new EPA rules – an amount investors may be reluctant to pay. Analysts think the companies running the plant may decide it’s not worth it.

About 320 of Colstrip’s 2,000 residents work for the factory. Its closure would devastate the city.

Dozens of coal-fired power plants in the United States are also under threat as the country moves further toward clean energy.

The Biden administration has tried to limit the damage by promising hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for projects aimed at transforming coal towns across the country into green energy hubs.

Projects include a factory in Weirton, West Virginia, that will produce materials used in clean energy infrastructure. Another is a wind turbine manufacturer in Vernon, Texas.

“The same communities that were once booming mining and power plant towns will now be at the center of our clean energy economy,” Biden said in October. ‘They deserve it.’

But in Colstrip, city leaders are divided over the inevitable transition away from coal, whether it happens sooner or later.

The city’s power plants were built in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, power is transferred as far as Washington State, Idaho and California.

Official figures show the remaining factory is one of the country’s biggest carbon emitters, emitting almost 11 million tonnes in 2022.

Jim Atchison, leader of the Southeast Montana Economic Development Corp, advocates for the local coal industry, but also accepts the need for new, clean energy sources if Colstrip is to survive the green transition.

‘We now have one horse in the stable. We need to add two or three more horses to the barn,” he said.

But Atchison also rejected the idea that coal could be immediately eliminated as an energy source. Federal data shows that coal will account for 16.2 percent of U.S. energy generation by 2023. Natural gas remains the country’s main fuel for generating electricity.

“Energy needs are rising dramatically across the country, so talking about getting rid of fossil fuels or coal is just not on the table right now, it’s just not going to happen,” Atchison told Fox Business.

“I think and hope we have coal in Colstrip for another 15 to 20 years and, quite frankly, we need it.

“I have never been more excited about the future of Colstrip and the southeastern part of our state than I am now because of the opportunities that are coming, including coal and other energy options.”

He said climate activists “have been trying to shut us down for many, many years and they have hurt us” with their campaigns.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of blatant lies about coal and energy and some of these rural areas,” he said.

A 2023 report published by the Harvard Kennedy School said that ‘closing coal mines and power stations poses significant economic and social challenges for the people who work there, their communities and the economies of the wider regions in which they live’ .

‘Helping coal regions develop high-quality, safe employment alternatives will be critical not only to achieving a ‘just transition’ to a low-carbon economy for these regions, but also to accelerating global progress in the field of climate change,” the report said.

Experts have also noted that replacing coal-fired power stations – including solar and wind farms – often requires far fewer permanent workers, meaning many jobs will still be lost.

The people who live and work in these coal towns are all too aware of the predicament in which they find themselves.

Jennifer Chesser lives a block away from the James H. Miller Jr. Electric Generating Plant, the nation’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, in West Jefferson, Alabama. The factory employs many of the city’s 500 people.

“It’s a double-edged sword for me,” Chesser said. ‘It harms the planet, but at the same time it helps us because it earns our living. So I’m torn.’