"Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote," ""coal is civilization and power."" "Coal initiated the industrial revolution." "Coal fired steam engines;" "Coal drove trains;" "coal drove factories." "Homes were heated with coal." "It was indispensable." "From early 1900s to the great depression through the new deal to World War II, coal powered America." "In the 20th century, coal became one of the dominant ways that the United States generated electricity." "Many Americans don't realize that every time they turn on their light switch, they are consumers of coal." "We are still quite dependent on coal." "But, coal was a 19th century source of fuel." "And we're in the 21st century." "I'm directing the environmental protection agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants." "Coal is the biggest source of carbon pollution in our atmosphere today." "Burning coal kills." "You get asthma, you get lung disease, you get cancer." "Higher rates of birth defects." "Heart disease, heart attacks and death." "It's the biggest source of toxic water pollution." "It's the biggest contributor to climate change." "The United Nations says climate change is real and man-made." "And that's why we have to stop this damage." "So, our work starting in 2002 was to stop 200 coal plants getting built." "To stop burning coal." "To stop mountaintop removal." "Shutdown coal mines." "Clean up their toxic waste." "And speed up our transition to a cleaner, safer future." "The us coal industry is in a fight for its life." "As the wood river power station shuts down." "B.C. Cobb power plant will be shutting down." "The U.S. coal industry is preparing for more layoffs." "The town is completely shut down." "It's just empty building after empty building after empty building." "We knew it was comin'." "We just didn't know how hard it was going to be." "We're losing everything." "Obama and the EPA pulled the rug out from underneath us." "You see why we're so frustrated." "The coal miner's livelihoods are in jeopardy." "They believe the Obama administration is hastening their demise." "No bureaucrat has a right to do this!" "We hope to make our voices heard that we want coal energy." "We like coal energy." "Better coal, better markets, better jobs!" "My opponent wants to put the great miners out of work and out of business." "That will never happen with Donald J. Trump as president." "Our miners are going back to work, again!" "We're going to end the war on coal the day we enter the white house." "January the 9th was the last time he was laid off." "I'd had my son and, I had a very hard time with it." "And I almost died." "And then when he went back, they said," ""sorry, and you're laid off, did you not know?"" "And he was like, "no, no one told me."" "And they had laid off 45 that day." "And then maybe a week later, they shut the mine down and had completely laid off everybody." "It gets really depressing whenever you, you know, you have kids and you go to work one day." "And they say, "well, you don't work here no more."" "Then, you got to go home and face your family and say, you don't have a job no more." "West Virginia has never been a prosperous place." "It's a very uncertain, kind of, life living in coal country." "Miners have always had to prepare for the inevitable booms and busts that happen because coal is incredibly market-driven." "If, you look at the Appalachian experience, coal used to employ hundreds of thousands of people." "And there used to be thousands of coal mines." "But, today, you have about 40,000 workers left." "Their average age is over fifty." "And the biggest thing that's changed in the past five years is coal costs more than its competitors." "The main reason over the last few years that coal has been in decline is cheap natural gas." "It's hydraulic fracturing, or fracking." "A few years ago, about half of our electricity came from coal." "But, today that number's less than a third." "The electricity grid is something that that has a lot of equipment and it's just, it doesn't change fast." "But, in fact, that's really what's happened over the last few years." "We've just seen this dramatic shift." "If there is a war that's being fought on coal, those who are waging it most violently are those in the natural gas industry." "We have an unbelievable bounty of natural gas." "And we have rigs that are out there operating at higher and higher efficiencies." "And that's keeping natural gas prices very low." "Because of natural gas, the decline of coal consumption and coal burning is not only happening rapidly." "But, the pace is accelerating, even, as we speak." "One of the nation's largest private coal producers may soon take on one of the largest layoffs in history." "Peabody energy, the nation's largest coal company filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday." "Alpha natural resources announced Wednesday they sent a warn notice to more than 100 coal miners in letcher and Harlan county." "The coal companies have basically, failed everybody;" "Their employees;" "The communities." "They've, they've failed everybody." "It's just heartbreaking, now, that, you know, they closed down and they take their workers' pensions." "They take their retirements;" "Their savings;" "anything they had in the company." "They file bankruptcy;" "They keep it." "And they send their workers on their way." "As long as they got their money in their pocket, they don't care." "That's a life and death struggle for a lot of these folks in these communities because when these big coal companies go bankrupt." "And you know, in Appalachia, we have seen this movie before, unfortunately." "What they want to do is they want to shed their obligations to workers." "Specifically, pensions and healthcare commitments." "And so that's what's happening again." "But, it's happening on a unprecedented scale." "When they filed bankruptcy pretty much from what I saw is these judges are real lenient with 'em." "And or pro-bankruptcy with the company from what I've saw." "They'll let 'em file bankruptcy." "And then they'll say well, "you don't have to pay into these miners' healthcare funds." "You don't have to pay into their pension funds." "We just relieve you of all obligations."" "Well, when they do that, what they're doing is they're destroying our healthcare and our pension system." "This country made a promise in 1947 that they would guarantee healthcare and pension benefits to coal miners if they would work in these here coal mines." "Now, we fulfilled our promise." "We've done it and well, hell a lot of us died doing it." "Coal miners get killed a lot, and," "I've heard coal operators say this," ""that's part of doing business."" "My grandpa got killed just not more than a mile across the river, there." "We deserve better than that." "The history of coal mining companies in, terms of protecting the safety of their workers is shoddy, or, even shameful." "The monongah blast in 1907." "Killed several hundred miners." "The upper big branch, the most recent of the big mining disasters killed 29 men in 2010." "Good evening." "It was catastrophic explosion deep underground and the loss of life is staggering." "The property is owned by massey energy company." "And has a history of releasing combustible methane gas." "This mine was still operating after repeated and serious safety violations." "Investigators concluded quote," ""massey promoted and enforced a workplace culture that valued production over safety."" "Massey's attitude and their ceo's attitude was that, listen, we come in to the coalfield communities;" "we provide you all with jobs;" "That provides a good tax base for your own schools." "If, some of you happen to get disabled, or killed, basically, suck it up." "That's part of doing business!" "There's nobody." "I'm not." "At least, nobody that I talk to that really has got a whole lot for coal companies because they, been pretty, well, heartless to the people!" "It's always been an uphill battle for the worker." "The industry has never valued workers." "The mule was more important than the man because mules were more expensive than workers and workers were replaceable." "So mine mechanization is the first thing that led to a huge collapse in coal mining jobs." "Right after World War II, you have 100,000 coal miners working in West Virginia." "By 1985, that number has gone down to 30,000;" "that number dropped over half because of mechanization of the coal mines." "They want machines to do most of the work." "The more machines they can use and less people they can use;" "the less liability they're going to have;" "the less work force problems they're going to have." "So, as mines in Appalachia became more mechanized." "And there are machines to help extract the coal, you, what you saw was a really steady and dramatic increase in production." "And it corresponded to a really significant decline in employment over that same time." "Workers in any industry want to have jobs." "They need jobs." "They want to feed their families." "And one of the things about the politics of coal and about coal corrupting is that the coal companies have made sure that states like West Virginia never developed an alternative economic base." "The coal industry has made sure that it was the only employer in town." "They can block legislation;" "they can block economic initiatives." "Any kind of industry that can compete with them, they want to keep it out." "I want my politicians, all of our elected officials, from county, city, state up, you know, if they didn't want coal." "And you know they didn't want this problem, then they should have gave us alternatives." "They should have provided us with alternative jobs." "But, they don't provide anything for anybody around here." "You know, we're not alone in this boat." "There's so many more people." "I'm, I'm hurt over it because I see people suffering." "And I know what they're doing and I know how they're, what they're going through." "You know, but, other people are angry because, you know," "I mean, they are losing everything." "The U.S. coal industry is in a fight for its very survival." "Pro-coal voters believe there is still a battle to be fought in the war on coal." "The us coal industry is preparing for more layoffs this fall." "Some have accused president Obama of a war on coal." "We've been reliant on coal as the most dominant industry in the history of our state." "As we moved away from that there, there's been a, a huge void that's been created." "So, there's been a lot of blame casting." "And what the EPA has done to our energy and done to our coal industry is ridiculous." "And politicians in particular, are looking for someone to, to blame it on." "We're going to push back against these people in every single way we can." "We're going to stop this war on coal!" "Over regulation from Obama and the EPA has killed the industry." "The only people fighting for the coal industry in Southern" "West Virginia are people who are in the coal industry." "My co-workers and myself feel like we're under attack by this government, with all the regulations they've imposed on us." "People just don't get it you don't think?" "No, not at all." "The workers who once might have been on the picket lines fighting against management now found their interest allied with the coal companies they work for." "Don't take our jobs away!" "There are people here in Washington that don't believe there's a war on coal." "Let me show of hands, how many of you believe there's a war on coal?" "Yeah!" "You know, if, I walk into a room and I ask folks what's been the most dominant industry in the history of the state?" "I mean, universally, they'll yell, coal!" "You know, so, is there war on coal?" "And they'll yell, hell, yeah!" "And then I ask them, well, assuming that's true, I said, let me ask you another question." "During coal's heyday, was west Virginia's economy in the top five, middle five, or bottom five in the national, you know, economic ranking?" "They'll be scratching their heads and say!" "Probably in the bottom five." "And so, we win the war on coal." "Are you going to be in the top five, middle five, or bottom five?" "And if the answer's still the bottom five, you know, why are we wasting so much time and energy trying to win a war that even, if, we win we're dead last." "It is very convenient for political leaders to point their fingers at the EPA and say," ""just as soon as we get rid of these pesky health and safety standards everything will go back to the way it was before."" "But, there are three things to know about the state of coal in this country." "One, the coal industry is never coming back to their former glory." "Despite, all of their promises that they will." "Second we are still burning a lot of coal in this country." "And third, coal is the most polluting form of energy on the planet." "It's the biggest contributor to climate change." "2014 will go down as the warmest year around the globe." "Earth set monthly heat records for 16 straight months." "The Earth's temperature hit a new high in 2016." "97% of scientists agree that climate change is happening now." "That it's damaging the planet." "And that it is man-made." "You have to understand the negative impacts of climate change." "The insurance industry has already said that if we exceed a global temperature rise beyond two degrees." "They will not be able to insure the world." "That is not one insurance company, that is the insurance industry." "If the world does nothing to control the emissions of the greenhouse gases." "Then the warming by the end of this century could be as high as five or six degrees celsius." "It would be warmer than it's been since the dinosaurs were dominant more than 65 million years ago." "And it's not clear whether the human endeavor could survive in such a world." "It's now a question of whether we can control the direction it goes." "So, we can go into a climate-friendly world." "Instead into a climate-inferno, basically." "In my first inaugural address I committed this country to the tireless task of combating climate change and protecting this planet for future generations." "Two weeks ago in Paris, I said before the world that we needed a strong global agreement to accomplish this goal." "So, the Paris agreement was a huge watershed moment for the planet." "Almost 200 countries came together and agreed to cut carbon pollution and make huge strides to try to prevent runaway climate change." "The Paris agreement seeks to limit global warming to 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels largely through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases." "The adoption of the Paris agreement was the culmination of 6 years of very, very intensive work with governments;" "with private sector;" "With civil society, with the finance sector." "The lion's share of what the us put on the table in Paris, which then brought all the rest of the world together to sign the Paris climate agreement was a commitment that we were going to slash carbon pollution from" "our biggest source, coal-fired power plants." "In a testament to the continuing clout and power of the coal industry, the new administration has said, they oppose the Paris climate agreement." "Donald Trump has said, he wants to revive the coal industry." "And has threatened to pull America out of the Paris climate agreement." "We will cancel this deal, so that our companies can compete." "There's no avoiding the climate problem." "And any responsible administration should want to protect us from climate change." "From our perspective, we're trying to save the planet from climate change." "We can't do that, unless, we phase out coal." "And now, acid rain in the news." "Acid rain looks, feels and smells like any other rain." "But, the water in acid rain carries poisons, like, sulfuric acid." "The best way to reduce acid rain is to force factories to cut back the sulfur dioxide that comes out of their smoke stacks." "Back in the 1980s, congress said we're going to clean up sulfur dioxide pollution, which causes acid rain." "So, the clean air act of 1990 amendments were passed." "Today, I am very proud on behalf of everyone here to sign this clean air act of 1990." "This bill will cut emissions that cause acid rain in half." "And permanently cap them at these new levels." "So, there were two ways the coal industry could have gone." "First, they could have put equipment on the power plants and cleaned up the sulfur with scrubbers." "And if, they had done that, we would have continued to mine most of our coal in Appalachia." "And there would be tens of thousands of coal mining jobs that didn't go away." "Instead, what the coal utilities did was to bring coal in from the powder river Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which had a lower content of sulfur." "Powder river Basin is an area in" "Montana and Wyoming." "It's, generally, considered north to the Yellowstone river." "And then, the big horn and powder rivers and that goes down into Wyoming." "It's an area that's very, very rich in fossil fuel resources." "There's coal;" "There's natural gas;" "There's oil." "At one time, they said, if, we were our own country, we'd be like Saudi Arabia." "You know, we'd have as much energy underneath as they do." "And so, after the clean air act amendments in 1990." "Coal in Appalachia declined." "And there was a new interest in the powder river Basin, ironically, because of environmental regulation." "The area produces 44% of America's coal." "It has 18 active coal mining operations, including the biggest coal mines in the country." "It employs 6,000 people." "And it is the dominant economic fact in that part of the country." "So, we're coming down into this pit." "It's about 160 feet deep right here." "So, this is about as deep as you'll see one of our high walls get." "And we're going to drive right out on to what's coal right here on this ramp." "We'll go down into the pit." "You can see where they mine it out." "And where they're working on it." "So, we're, kind of, a one horse town." "Everything that we do here is based on coal." "Everything." "All the jobs." "We have a population in our, in our city of around 2,300 residents." "And we have gone through a lot of diversity over the years with the construction of the power plants, the, the opening up of the mine." "One time, our population in our community was 8,700 people." "We got three, what are called Marion 8050 draglines." "It weighs six and a half million pounds." "That boom is 325 feet long." "So, you lay it down, it's longer than a football field." "Anything about coal is labor intensive." "Somebody's taking a paycheck home on Friday night, putting shoes on the baby." "It don't matter, if, you're building a dragline;" "working on one of these haul trucks;" "Whatever you're doing, coal is labor intensive." "It's a really interesting town in the way it's built." "It's very much a company town." "The power plants are there and then the town is built around them." "And then surrounding the town is the coal mines." "The power plant here is really four power plants." "And even though it's all in one footprint, one permit, one complex." "Number 1 and 2 were built back in the mid-70s." "Units 3 and 4, which are the bigger ones, were built in the mid-80s." "The largest owner of Colstrip happens to be puget sound energy." "1,000 miles away and the power almost exclusively heads to the west." "The Colstrip plant is surrounded by some of the most beautiful country in the state." "And last year was rated as the third highest greenhouse gas emitter in the nation." "Coal when you mine it has a lot of really nasty chemicals in it." "And when they burn it, much of that goes out of the smoke stack into the air." "Mercury, lead, arsenic, all of these hazardous pollutants, they're hazardous;" "they're toxic to people's health;" "they're toxic to wildlife." "They end up some place." "They end up in the air." "Or, they end up in the water." "The community has already sued the plant for contaminating their ground water." "That was their drinking water source." "The plant paid $25 million to that community and none of that money went to clean up." "The state still doesn't have a cleanup plan." "So, in Colstrip, the water gets pumped from the Yellowstone river, which is about 50 miles north of town." "And then it gets distributed to town and the coal-fired power plant." "The fact that they get their drinking water from the" "Yellowstone is because they can't drink it out of the Wells." "You know, these companies say, we care about the community." "We care about you." "And they tend to say that the environmental concerns are over blown;" "Everything's fine." "Don't worry about it." "And a lot of people believe that." "We've never had any issues of pollution." "There's been some challenges over the years connected with ground water and those types of things." "But the companies has gotten in, involved with them." "But, we've never had any issues associated with pollution, or dust, or those types of things." "These are some of the cleanest power plants in the country, percentage-wise of the coal that they burn." "The air is not a problem." "If, they're doing' something' wrong, these mines or power plants then, take them to task for it." "But, as far as I can see, we do it right in Montana." "You have a facility that was built in the 1970s, like so many coal plants across the country." "They were built in a time when they were grandfathered in under the original clean air act." "And at that time, congress said," ""but, when these facilities age, they're going to have to modify." "They're going to have to upgrade their pollution control equipment;" "Their boilers;" "Their turbines."" "Well, what plants did all over the nation, including at Colstrip, is they chose to never modernize." "So, the Sierra Club and our allies set off in state after state, engaging local communities around public health, crisis associated with coal-fired power plants." "And when regulators were unwilling and aren't able to crack down on the pollution, we brought lawsuits to retire approximately 500 existing coal plants." "As the wood river power station shuts down..." "B.C. Cobb power plant will be shutting down." "Few here thought the facility would be forced into retirement." "We brought one legal appeal every 3 days." "At the time we started, there was 523 coal plants." "And we're almost halfway, in terms of retiring half the U.S. coal fleet." "There's one other thing about coal plants." "Energy consumers in big cities are saying, wait a minute!" "I can get something else that's cheaper and cleaner?" "What's not to like?" "There was pressure coming both from" "Washington and Oregon." "Both of those states passed laws so that they could extricate themselves from their power they were bringing in from Colstrip." "And move to clean energy." "We wanted to do our part, first of all, to reduce climate emissions." "That's what our residents want." "And we work with the state legislature and puget sound energy to not just shift that coal-fired energy to another region." "But to shut those plants down." "Unfortunately, Washington legislature decided no more coal-by-wire." "And in the background was the lawsuit over these plants." "The settlement was reached out of court that there would be a closure of 1 and 2 by 2022." "Big news, today, on Montana's coal-fired Colstrip power plants." "Owners of the four plants have agreed to close Colstrip plants 1 and 2 by 2022, part of a settlement of a clean air lawsuit." "When we first found out the news of 1 and 2 being shut down, I would say the initial reaction of this community was nothing short of shock and panic." "Suddenly, everyone was trying to figure out:" "What are we going to do?" "Who's going to have to leave?" "Because that's what it boils down to." "When you shutdown half a power plant that sustains a city, that means half of those people are going to have to leave." "Colstrip was actually making a lot of money." "And when they were making a lot of money, puget sound energy chose not to put on the technology that would have made our clean air act lawsuit impossible." "Puget is taking a position where they're going to take the path of least resistance because of some suits that have been placed on them by the Sierra Club." "And they want to remove themselves from the state and the responsibilities to, to the state and responsibilities to our community." "Blue-collar people always take it in the shorts." "You have a big plant layoff, or big plant shutdown somewhere, hit the road." "Just be thankful I gave you a job." "And I think these companies have a responsibility to those people that made these plants produce at some of the highest reliability in the United States." "And now you just want to walk away from it?" "Nah." "The people who live in a town created by coal mining and coal burning can't imagine a future without it." "Their jobs are dependent on it;" "their town is dependent on it." "Their town in some sense exists because of coal mining." "But, there's been tremendous resistance to the coal mining and the coal burning on the part of the people who were there first, on the part of native Americans, or on the part of ranchers who surround those" "coal mining operations." "This is just an example of what the loss of our spring water has done." "This is the first time that I have ever seen this spring dry in my lifetime." "We've probably have 20 of these Springs like this that are just, they're all like this." "They've just dried up and are gone." "And it used to be there was fish in there and it was just an entirely different world than what we're coming in to now." "Coal is a wonderful thing." "But, it's, comes at a pretty expensive cost." "Coal in this area sits in an aquifer." "And in order to get to that coal you've got to remove the aquifer." "When a coal mine goes in and disturbs an aquifer, that just stops that water from going to where it used to go." "So, Springs dry up." "And because we live in an arid country here, we hardly get any precipitation." "So, all the water for wildlife, people, livestock, it comes from Wells." "It comes from under the ground." "We've had stopped running about 100 head of cattle that we always, that we could have run here, the year round because we've lost that much vegetation from the lack of the water there to charge it." "Yes, coal does bring prosperity." "But, what do we do if there's no water?" "There is no prosperity without water." "So, that brings up the issue of one industry against another." "Come on, let's keep up guys." "Come on, mama." "Come on, come on." "It looks, kind of, green now." "But, we don't have a lot of water here." "And I think, that's the part that we can, we can handle some of the inconvenience;" "some of the surface damage." "But, we wouldn't have been able to stay here having a massive coal mine around." "Otter Creek valley and the Tongue river valley are one of, probably, the largest undeveloped areas in the powder river Basin where wildlife, agriculture, tribal, historic and cultural sites exist." "In a way that they existed hundreds of years ago." "But the coal reserves in southeast Montana are enormous." "And people have always been talking about possibly developing the otter creek coal tracks." "The state land board leased the otter creek coal tracts near Ashland to Arch coal for $86 million up front." "That deal was based on $15 a ton." "In 2010, arch coal, the second largest coal company in the United States at that time leased those coal tracks, which if developed would have been the largest coal mine in the United States." "And so that started the six-year organizing campaign to stop the otter creek coal mine and the tongue river railroad, which was necessary to get that coal to market." "The fight against the otter creek mine and the tongue river railroad, I think, is one of the more interesting ones, um that's happened in this whole debate about how we move forward with coal because it brought together just a weird" "coalition of people." "Well, hell, it was Cowboys and Indians together." "I mean, think about that." "It was my cheyenne neighbors and then amish folks, and ranchers." "It was people that have ties to the land that may not agree on anything else." "But, they understand that this land can take care of us as a society, if, we take care of it." "Our ancestors fought hard to give us this land." "Not only are the plants and animals important." "But, also, the, the cultural landscape." "And the ancestors that are buried there." "But, when you have open pit coal mines, those are impacts that can last for hundreds of years." "Even, though, there were people on the" "Cheyenne reservation that thought, maybe we should do this because jobs are very hard to come by there." "But they, by in large, didn't want it." "We all want to have a house and a two-car garage." "But, the question is should it be by destroying the land that we live in." "And in the ranching community in the area was very much against it." "They, also, were faced with condemnation." "So, that this railroad could get built to ship the coal out of otter creek." "The coal companies wanted to lease this land." "And in order to harvest the coal and get it out of here, they had to have a railroad." "Well, that was also a pretty scary part because it goes right through your property." "And of course, the original railroad went through my bull pasture right behind the school." "Well, that wouldn't have been very nice, would it?" "Only school we've got in the community with a railroad right, within 50 yards of it." "It's hard for people to understand because, yeah, you look at it on a map." "And it just goes through your property and just, you know, in our case, it went through a mile, three quarters of a mile of our ranch, which to someone who's just looking at a map," "that doesn't look like much." "But, when it's cutting your cattle off from water, it makes a whole chunk of country worthless." "We had lots of meetings talking about it bringing up the shortcomings;" "asking if they're going to address this." "And no, they haven't." "So, we got to go back to the drawing board." "And there were some really frustrating times where we had just not enough, kind of, voice it just didn't seem like we mattered." "It took years of organizing to get anyone in Helena to pay attention." "But, they did." "A federal board dismisses tongue river railroad companies $400 million application to build a coal-hauling tongue river railroad." "At the final public hearing for the tongue river railroad, everyone came together and said, "no, we don't want you here." "This is our community and we're going to protect it."" "And that community was able to stop the largest proposed coal mine in the country." "A fight like this will happen again." "But, it'll be different because the community that fought off arch coal and burlington northern and billionaires will exist into the future." "And those same people will be ready to fight whatever comes next." "When most people think about coal mining, they probably imagine someone with a helmet and a lamp on the front going underground." "But, mountaintop removal is a very different process." "What happened in Appalachia, of course, is they've already mined out the easy to get coal." "So, they just started carving off the tops of the mountains." "The coal is in the mountain like layers in a cake." "And so they blow up a layer of rock." "They shove that into the valley." "And they take away the layer of coal." "Then, they blow up the next level of rock;" "shove that into the valley below, which often times is home to a stream." "Maybe, even, communities." "And then take off the next level of coal." "And so, coal companies have been doing this because it's more profitable." "It's cheaper for them." "It requires far fewer workers." "But, it is devastating to the health of people living near these sites." "And obviously, devastating to the environment." "To me, as somebody who had grown up in the mountains and love the mountains, the idea that a coal company would have the right to blow up an entire mountain and wipe it off the map, forever, was just unconscionable." "These places are not just, sort of, physically important to people." "But, they're spiritually important to people." "And once they're gone, they're gone forever." "You can't put a mountain back together." "And I just, deeply feel that no company has the right to take away something that ultimately belongs and matters to so many people." "Just look across the valley next door, that's what it used to be like, you know." "And one of the most diverse forest on the planet." "And now it's a wasteland." "Over there used to be a valley." "And a stream that's now covered up with thousands of feet of boulders." "That's never going to be the same, again." "And it's over 2,000 miles of stream have been buried in Appalachia." "Some of the most diverse streams on the planet." "Some of the cleanest water on the planet." "And that is a huge loss to this, to this part of the world." "When that rock material is pushed over the edge of the now flattened mountain, it ends up dissolving a lot of minerals into the water." "Things like iron, magnesium, calcium and organisms can't tolerate that." "So, it kills organisms in the stream." "And so that material, that water that is now heavily polluted runs out of the base of the valley fill into streams." "And eventually, into rivers below." "They also store the mining waste in these huge earthen dams." "And they're holding back billions of gallons of toxic sludge that's leaking into the drinking water." "Everybody's wells pretty much is contaminated in one form or another." "So, I don't use the water to cook." "I use it to do the dishes." "But, that's about it cause you can wipe the water off." "There's a guy that we tend to help out every now and again." "He is a, blind from the water." "He could take his water;" "Turn his water on;" "put it in a clear water bottle put his hand over it;" "set it for a few seconds;" "Even, put a cap on it;" "take the cap off;" "And, take a lighter and light it." "And the water will burn." "So, yeah." "Water around here is pretty bad." "There is a stack of peer-reviewed health studies that demonstrate higher rates of cancer and birth defects and premature deaths around these mountaintop removal sites." "It's a public health disaster from start to finish." "Coal is simply such a massive part of the global economy." "And every ton of coal that is mined and burned does so much damage that it is public health threat number one." "As much as 80,000 tons of coal ash spilling into" "North Carolina's Dan river." "That spill originating at a closed coal plant owned by Duke energy." "Coal ash can be toxic." "This has already turned the water grey and brown in places." "A pipe ruptured beneath Duke's coal ash pond Sunday." "Local environmental groups say the water supply for nearly a million people around Charlotte could be at risk, too." "I've been living here 29 years." "And we bought this house after we got married." "My husband's parents lived about a mile down the road." "My husband grew up right across the street." "Duke power's at the end of the road." "I've really never heard about coal ash until I saw the Dan river on TV." "So, I didn't have any misgivings about being here whatsoever." "Back in 2014, after the Dan river spill," "I got a letter on my door saying that there was going to be a community meeting at the fire station about the coal plant." "And the coal ash impoundments." "And so, I live in this community." "And I wanted to find out more about it." "When I found out that there was a coal ash pond right across the street diagonally from my house," "I'd never seen it." "Really didn't know what it was." "Coal-fired power plants have been around for almost a century, now." "And when you burn coal, you have ash left over." "And what has been done for decades is that ash has been mixed with water, and, sluiced over to a pond." "Duke energy took the simplest and cheapest route." "They just dug unlined pits that leak directly next to rivers, lakes and people's Wells." "Arsenic, Mercury, lead, selenium, sometimes, even, some radioactive materials." "Things you do not want in undesirable amounts in your body, in your kids, in your grandkids, in your fish, or in your drinking water." "Now, the biggest problem we're actively seeing is the contamination of people's Wells around the perimeter of the site who've drawn ground water for their daily drinking water." ""North Carolina, division of public health recommends that your well water not be used for drinking and cooking."" "Duke energy knew, like, 50-some days before I knew that, that my water was contaminated." "The state of North Carolina knew 20 or 30 days before." "They waited almost six weeks from the time somebody in" "North Carolina knew that my water was contaminated, waited six weeks to let me know!" "A professional toxicologist at the" "North Carolina department of health and human services sent people who had high levels of hexavalent chromium and vanadium and other substances, letters warning them not to drink their well water." "And that stayed in effect for a year." "And then without warning after the state got a new political appointee suddenly, letters go out that tell people it's okay to drink their water." "Duke maintains that its plants did not contaminate neighbor's Wells." "The coal ash basins are not impacting the resident's well water." "What is in their Wells is naturally-occurring all over our state." "Here's my first letter." "It tells me, I got to have re-sampling." "A month later, a little over a month later, again." "My well water is not safe to drink." "Then the third letter I get says my water is safe to drink almost 11 months later." "State of North Carolina says they're leading the nation in coal ash cleanup." "This ain't leading no nation in coal ash cleanup." "Telling people to drink contaminated water that you have told me twice not to drink?" "That's not being a leader!" "What you have is a system guaranteed to pollute; a system of primitive storage." "We wouldn't allow anyone else to do." "And a system that is primed for catastrophe." "Every day they are polluting ground water, rivers, and lakes with toxic metals." "The companies have a reason not to clean up." "They can't afford to and still make coal profitable." "If you took all the profit that's made burning coal, it's not enough dollars to clean up after the mess that coal leaves behind." "Coal ash is an enormous problem across this country." "There are about 1,000 coal ash sites with very heavy levels of pollution, ultimately ending up in some waterway that people are relying on for drinking water." "It's a ticking time bomb for millions of Americans." "Okay, what's your name baby?" "Go on, go on!" "Fill her up." "Send her on down." "We know that Duke energy is never going to admit this because, if, they do, there's six other states waiting to pound on them." "We know that." "We just want them to do the right thing." "Clean the mess up, clean up their own trash on their own property just like they would expect us to do." "And provide us clean, safe water." "We know too much now to turn around and back up." "And we are not going away." "Air quality alert for Dallas, fort worth, today." "High o-zone levels are leading to poor air quality." "Doctors recommend that the elderly and people with asthma stay indoors." "A new report shows Dallas, fort worth air quality worsened receiving an f rating." "Bad news for anyone who has asthma, or other respiratory ailments." "Let's turn now to the weekend weather report." "I'm going to let that start." "I have three kids." "Two, of which are asthmatic." "He's now three." "And we've already had two bouts of pneumonia." "Three-day hospital stay the first time." "The second was a five-day stay." "I thought it was hereditary." "Come to find out, it is not hereditary." "It's, it's environmental." "Texas is a big coal state." "There's a line of coal that, basically, runs from the northeast corner of the state all the way down to San Antonio." "That's why we have this line of coal burning power plants northeast, east and south of Dallas." "It's lignite, which is a very dirty, kind of, coal that's maybe, the worst stuff that you can burn to make electricity." "And those emissions from the coal-fired powered plant blow over Dallas." "And mix over Dallas and create an enormous amount of smog." "Well, at first, we didn't know that the coal-fired power plants were the problem." "But, after several years of study, it just became very obvious that was the single largest source of ozone generation in north Texas." "The biggest problem is coal-fired power plants belch out nitrogen compounds." "Then, waft over the wind and when they get in a large metropolitan area, the nitrogen combines with automobile exhaust and sunlight acts as a catalyst in producing ozone at the ground level." "And ozone is one of the leading precipitating effects that cause asthma." "Good morning." "Hi, good morning, how are you today?" "I'm good." "Good, how are you doing?" "I had a 3-hour asthma attack last night because my lungs were clogged." "And I just, I couldn't get, in," "I couldn't even get the medicine in me to even get relief for a couple of hours." "And just breathe." "Nobody is born with asthma." "Certain people have a genetic predisposition to developing it." "If, they're exposed to certain things that damage their lungs, then, they will develop asthma." "Children who are exposed all of their formative years to high ozone and particulate levels from air pollution their lungs are damaged." "This is one of my inhalers." "And this is my chamber." "I have, like, probably three more, or four because I have to keep a lot with me." "This is my machine." "And this is my mask." "I got this years ago when I was younger." "If children's lungs are damaged as they grow up." "Their lungs do not develop as fully." "And there maybe, a 20% reduction in lung capacity when you get out of puberty, get into adulthood." "Of course, you feel awful." "As a mama, you want to fix it." "You want your baby to be okay." "You want your kids to be healthy." "You just try to do the best you can and that's it." "You do the medicines." "Even, though I don't necessarily believe in pumping them full of medicine." "But, when it comes to that, I know that there is no option." "It's cold." "It is cold." "It's your lungs." "If, you don't breathe, then what?" "When we talk about air quality in Dallas." "And what are we going to do about the smog problem?" "Half of it could be taken care of today if we put scrubbers on all of those coal plants." "Or, if, we shut down the dirtiest of those coal plants that really shouldn't be running anymore." "But, there have been lots of federal regulations that the state will sue to not have to be in compliance with for one reason or another." "And as long as those lawsuits are going on." "Then, compliance doesn't have to go forward." "So, these industries have been able to skirt federal regulation that every other state is subject to." "Today the state of Texas is taking its challenge to the EPA." "This legal action is being taken to protect the Texas economy." "And the jobs that go with it." "We need these health and safety safeguards that the EPA has put in place." "It is not acceptable that we're poisoning kids with" "Mercury, or we're giving kids asthma attacks just so these companies can make a bigger profit." "Due to the ozone problem in Dallas and the surrounding counties per year, we're seeing an extra" "120,000 school absences." "And 149,000 restricted activity days of adults." "And most important, we're seeing 70 deaths per year." "Altogether the economic value, or cost of these health problems is about $500 million a year in Dallas county and the surrounding counties." "It became imperative, then, to organize people to do something about the air because, actually, it's something that most citizens should be in an uproar about." "How many people in here have asthma, or know someone who has asthma?" "Okay, that's a lot of people." "And what I'm finding more and more is that most people do." "And it's something that we can do something about." "Once you realize that there's some corporate entity outside of your home affecting your finances, your health;" "your children's health;" "You know, that gets people riled up." "And that gets them motivated to want to do something about it." "It's maddening!" "It will piss you off." "Especially, when you can't afford the medicine." "They have three medicines." "One of them alone is, like, $200 a box." "And these companies are making all this money." "And here you are just trying to make it." "I'm just trying to keep them breathing." "Dallas is one of many cities in the country that is plagued with very dirty air." "But, there is a big disconnect when we sometimes get lulled into the sense." "Well, the regulators are taking of it." "So governments wouldn't allow someone to run a business that was actually harming the residents." "With the clean air act, there is a national standard that all Americans are entitled to clean and safe air to breathe." "But, in fact, there are thousands of people a year dying from air pollution from coal-fired power plants." "But again, we're, sort of, being lulled into this sense of," ""everything's fine."" "Every time I wrote an air pollution related story, I would get notes from people saying," "I don't know anybody who's ever died of this." "And my response was always, "how do you know?"" "How do you know that your uncle didn't die ten years earlier than he should have?" "How do you know it that your grandson wasn't in the hospital last month because of air pollution." "You don't know this." "I would like to double-check your vital signs." "It's a fight within myself just to breathe." "And keep a happy face." "And it's hard." "You folks are at a position of power and authority today." "The fate of the planet is in the hands of our generation." "And you'll have to answer the question, then, and, for that matter, all of us will." "How did I act when the chips were down?" "We stand here today to celebrate the next step in bringing more family-waged jobs to longview." "Better coal, better markets, better jobs!" "I am passionate about not allowing the coal industry to dump 44 million tons of coal on the banks of our Columbia river." "And all you opponents here tonight, who don't even live in Cowlitz county, go back to your fancy offices and your glass towers." "Sip on your over-priced coffee drinks, go home." "And let the people in this community get back to work." "So, we can prosper." "The plan was to ship coal from the powder river Basin in Wyoming." "To the west coast and build these gigantic coal terminals on the west coast in places like longview, Washington to load that coal onto ships, take it across the pacific." "And sell it in Asia." "Mile-long trains, millions of pounds of coal, and more than a dozen trips a day through downtown Seattle." "The contentious issue had thousands of people on both sides of the argument jammed into the convention center tonight." "Coal has always divided communities." "There's always been people who fought it and, always been people who've wanted it." "You not only have people on the coasts who are worried about climate change;" "worried about the local pollution from the, the projects." "But all along the rail lines, leading all the way back into" "Montana and Wyoming." "People don't want these huge trains full of coal and coal dust barreling through their communities day and night." "The coal trains were going to have two big impacts." "One, dramatic increase in traffic." "And that in some of these communities meant that there was going to be, literally, the town cut in half." "The rail line goes directly through downtown billings, downtown Bozeman, downtown missoula." "These communities throughout the northwest." "And so when you have to sit there and wait for a train." "You've got hospital on one side and you've got half of town across the tracks." "If, you're waiting for coal trains to go through, you know, that's a safety issue." "Local farmers and ranchers can't get their products on to trains because the rails are occupied by these long slow-moving trains." "And that has a real impact on our economy in the state, in this region." "It also has huge public health implications." "Coal trains are the only product moved without covers." "And literally, because of the wind blowing the coal, every coal car loses an enormous amount of pollution along the tracks from the mine all the way to the port." "Coal dust along the way, obviously, can pollute streams and local air, but it comes right through neighborhoods." "And that coal dust is being deposited all along the way where those families are trying to raise their kids." "Right ahead, there are the tracks." "And you get a feeling for how close this neighborhood is to that train track." "And where that coal is going to run." "The vulnerability of this neighborhood to this industry is shocking." "Longview's a town that has really suffered because of the decline of the timber industry." "And and, sort of, the legacy economy." "And there have been attempts over the years to bring in new industry." "But, it's hard to replace those family-wage jobs." "We all stand here unified together for one goal and that's good jobs." "So, if, we could, let's send a message to the governor." "Let's send a message to the folks over there." "Solidarity, solidarity!" "Thank you millennium!" "People are desperate for jobs." "At the same time, we're not so gung-ho about any job is a good job." "We can do better." "The whole entire side keeps saying that we can do better." "If, we could do better, better would be coming." "This is our county and we need jobs." "We're looking at about 1,000 construction jobs over a two-year build out." "There's projected 130 full-time jobs for the production workers and the dock workers." "The promise is jobs." "Yet, millennium is only offering 100, a total of 135 jobs by the year of 2028." "Give these people jobs that will take them into the real new millennium." "Not the last millennium;" "That was the dark ages." "We need real jobs and real community and coal isn't it." "Say, no." "Putting aside, the, sort of, battle over the environmental thing is the world really going to want this coal?" "Are other countries really going to buy it at a price that allow U.S. domestic producers to make real money?" "And I'm, I'm not convinced of that by any means." "I mean, first of all, if, they are going to burn coal in places like India, or in China." "They would much rather burn their own." "At one time China was building a coal plant every week." "But, the demand in China is dropping far more rapidly than anyone had ever predicted." "They've got a lot of coal in their own domestic reserves." "And so that market just hasn't been there the way the coal executives thought it would be just a few years ago." "So, in many ways, I do see the coal industry in the" "U.S. as on life support." "What happens at the mine and what happens with the shipments of coal affects all of us here in Gillette." "And if, they don't survive." "Then, I'm done, too." "I am certain the boom is over." "I don't think there'll be another boom here." "I'm disappointed that the coal operators, maybe, didn't do more to, to save themselves." "I wish that they would have invested more into changing their products so that it was more environmentally friendly." "If we can do something different with it, like, clean coal," "I don't know if we can or not." "But, it could be a, it could be a very good thing for us if it happens." "About 15 years ago, there was a big push by the coal industry promising that they could make coal clean." "And the one piece of the cleanup of coal that they were never able to work out was, what do you do about carbon pollution?" "And so they started talking about, well, we could just capture it." "There is a thing called clean coal." "Coal will last for 1,000 years in this country." "Clean coal is a made-in-America solution to energy security;" "Economic stimulus and environmental progress." "Clean coal, now is the time." "It's a hope that goes back many years." "You can look and see as early as president Reagan efforts to cultivate the, this technology." "With our modern technology, yes, we can burn our coal within the limits of the clean air act." "I think as technology improves, we'll be able to do even better with that." "Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal power, while, capturing carbon emissions." "We can develop the technology to capture the carbon pollution released by coal." "It can create jobs and provide energy well into the future." "So, the ambition is real." "And the ability to actually capture this carbon has been proven." "The concept behind clean coal is carbon capture and sequestration, often called CCS." "It's a process, in which you are capturing the carbon before it releases into the environment." "And you're condensing that carbon, often, into a liquefied form." "And then you're, typically, sending it elsewhere to inject it in the ground." "But, in order to run carbon capture equipment, you need 25% more coal." "So really, it should be dirty coal because the actual air pollution, which is the sulfur oxides, the nitrogen oxides, the particulate matter, the Mercury, all those chemicals go up, 25%." "If, we can have cheap and clean ccs that would be a good thing." "But, it's not competitive." "The latest example is this kemper plant in Mississippi, which was supposed to be the proof of clean coal." "The kemper county coal plant project continues to garner international acclaim." "Once we get this plant up and running sometime next year, we feel like that that interest will grow exponentially." "Kemper was the poster-child plant that the Obama administration hoped would show that this technology is feasible and viable and economical." "And therefore, we could move to the stage of trying to figure out how to replicate it." "The cost was supposed to be $2.7 billion." "It's now almost double that at $5 billion." "I don't think the economics for this plant was ever true." "If, you saw the true cost and the true schedule, it would have made kemper a non-starter." "It's now $4 billion over-budget;" "two years late;" "Being investigated by the sec;" "facing two lawsuits." "So it has not worked out the way that folks had hoped." "That coal plant is the most expensive power plant ever built in the United States." "No one will ever, again, build one of those quote-clean coal plants because it makes no economic sense in today's world." "You know, this is about opportunity cost." "What do we do with our dollars?" "If, we have an endless supply of money, maybe, we can make coal a smidgen cleaner." "It doesn't clean up the rest of the air." "It doesn't clean up the water pollution." "It, it makes the carbon dioxide emissions lower for billions of dollars." "If we want to actually reduce CO2 emissions from the U.S. or globally, to some sufficient amount, it is worth investing in all kinds of technologies that could help get us there." "But, if, we're talking about solving the problem, now?" "When we look at what's in our toolbox to, kind of, to deal with it, now?" "Ccs is not there." "Ideally, the future of Colstrip would be to have somebody else come in and say, hey!" "Those units are productive;" "They're effective;" "they're efficient;" "They're clean burning." "That would be the epitome of what we would like to hope for." "Whether it's a another type of coal, clean coal technology, some other source, we have a great place here." "We have a workforce that wants to do that." "And we have a fuel supply next door." "We're a natural resource state." "We have been." "I mean, look on our flag." "What do you see?" "Pick and shovel." "We've been digging our future since before this was a state." "People are holding on so tightly to coal that they have blinders on to any other opportunities." "We have amazing transmission lines here." "We could be powering communities with solar and wind and geothermal." "But, people have to be open to seeing that." "We do feel that we have a tremendous responsibility to the community of Colstrip." "How can we ease the blow here?" "How do we bring other industries into this area that creates jobs that people can be proud to go to?" "We already know this transition is happening." "So, we can either choose to adapt." "Or, we can fight what is happening." "And if, we continue to fight it." "And say, hey!" "We want to be a coal town, that's what we want to do, and, people don't want to buy it." "Um, we're going to get left behind." "You go up to Judith gap and you talk to their local government up there." "That's an extremely conservative county." "Legislators from the county are very, very conservative." "But, they like wind." "Judith gap wind farm is about 100 miles northwest of billings, Montana." "And they are the oldest wind farm in Montana." "There's 90 turbines, 265 feet in the air." "And at full production, one-megawatt hour could produce enough power to sustain 300 to 1,000 homes." "Wind is bringing in money;" "it's bringing in tax revenue." "And the wind turbines are paying lease payments to the farmers, whose land they are located on." "So, there's a lot of money to be made in wind." "We put in, over $18 million into the local economy." "And over about $4 million just in lease payments to land owners." "We're completely aware that renewable energy is not necessarily going to absorb every worker who is displaced from Colstrip." "But, we are very excited about what it can do to help lessen the blow." "And it frankly, what it can do to other communities that haven't necessarily benefited from coal." "If we transitioned to clean, renewable energy, we will need to build a huge infrastructure." "This is like, a moon project where we have to build at rates unprecedented in human history." "I mean, we're going to have full-time jobs building wind plants and solar plants and electric vehicles;" "Batteries." "We're going to have to retrofit homes." "So, there's huge potential for renewable energy jobs." "In 2009, we developed an energy plan to see whether it was possible to re-power the entire world with wind, water, and solar power." "And we determined that it was, technically and economically possible." "But, there were social and political barriers that might slow us." "But, these plans have really galvanized a movement." "And many cities, in fact, have now adopted goals, of going to 100% clean renewable energy." "So, this has kind of spread like wildfire." "Here we are in one of the reddest cities;" "in one of the reddest counties;" "in one of the reddest states." "But, we put those silly national politics aside to do what's best for the people we're elected to serve." "And the best thing to do was to sign contracts for wind and solar." "Currently, we're 90% renewable energy." "In the spring, we'll be the largest city in the country that will be 100% renewable energy." "And I think, we're getting a fresh approach because the national politics is Texas wasn't supposed to do this!" "That's a, that's this liberal-progressive idea up in the northeast." "They should be doing that!" "But, the decision was first and foremost an economic decision." "Here, everything that we do in this city is built on 30-year horizons." "So, in my case, when it came to power that meant taking a 30-year outlook on what the cost of the energy is." "The best part about renewable energy is that with a solar panel or even, a wind turbine, for the most part, it's not difficult to keep them working." "And they have no fuel cost." "So, 30 years from today, they will be making energy that cost nothing to the market." "We were able to sign contracts for 20 and 25 years." "So, we're going to be buying energy in year 25 at the same kilowatt price as in year one." "If you make fact-based decisions, I think, that's what turns out best for the people we were elected to serve." "Cities are really becoming laboratories for best practices." "When you look around the country." "And you look at the number of communities that are coming up with renewable energy solutions." "It's largely cities that are driving that conversation." "70% of greenhouse gas emissions are emitted by cities." "So, we must be and we have to be making a strong commitment to use alternative energy sources." "And that's the importance of being a member of groups, like the c40." "A group of over 85 major cities across the world that are making a commitment to using cleaner energy." "One of the encouraging signs I see is that big companies like, Google," "Facebook and Apple are fully committed." "They really believe that the future lies in renewable energy." "So, even, as this ridiculous debate continues over whether climate change is caused by humans or not, you're seeing the major corporations;" "you're seeing other countries investing heavily in renewables." "The western perspective on China is they just burn tons and tons of coal." "And they're the biggest problem." "But China is by far and away, the largest manufacturer of solar equipment." "They produce more wind turbines than any other country, as well." "And more to the point, they install a lot more than any other country." "Over a third of all the new generation that they added last year was renewable." "And India is going to compete with China on both quality and price of solar technology." "And how exciting is it that the two largest developing countries will actually, very, very soon be the producers of cutting edge energy technology." "That is a huge shift in paradigm that we're not used to." "The rest of the world is doing this." "And because there's less opposition in many countries than in the United States." "It's more, likely, that they will take the lead by us not acting fast enough." "As cheaper, cleaner choices are out there for people, the market is going to drive coal away." "That is inevitability." "It cannot be changed, no matter who is president;" "no matter who is governor;" "no matter what lawsuit gets filed." "We were able at a national level to find common ground on some other very contentious issues." "Back a decade ago, there was a war on tobacco." "So, instead of, saying overnight, we're just going to leave the tobacco farmers high and dry." "Congress came up with a way to help the communities and the farmers make a transition." "It's exactly what we can be doing with the coal mining communities and the coal miners." "Today, I am pleased to announce that the" "U.S. economic development administration is awarding" "$11.5 million to organizations in this region." "These projects will help create jobs in new, or existing industries by diversifying local economies." "I'm from Youngstown, Ohio." "Thirty-plus years ago, when that transition was happening with the manufacturing of steel, there was no coordinated federal response." "It took some communities decades to figure out which way was up." "But we have to make sure that there is a federal assistance to help those communities move to a better future." "We, basically, envision this as being a hub for job creation and job training." "So, coalfield development is a family of social enterprises." "We started in construction." "Our trainees sign a 30-month contract." "They work, paid on the job." "They're in the community college six hours a week." "They've been working towards an associate's degree." "So, it's an employment;" "It's wages in the pocket;" "they're building credentials that are going to benefit them the rest of their life." "I was born and raised in West Virginia." "And you know as a region, we're not ashamed of powering this country for 100 years." "We're proud of that and we should be proud of that." "But, I think, we're waking up to the realization that if we're going to survive, we're going to have to adapt." "So, we started coalfield development in the summer of 2010." "Come up here and put a big white caulking around that, sink." "Just screw it in with the little screws that we have out in the truck." "All the mines around Lincoln county's closed down." "These boys have a hard time finding a job when they come out of high school because there's just nothing." "We got Subway, McDonald's, a Burger King, that's your job market." "So, this is really a great opportunity for kids looking for jobs." "We realized with that model, we were on to something." "So we said hey, this is something we can replicate in other industries." "So, this is our family of enterprises." "Revitalize is our construction;" "rewire is our solar;" "Refresh is our agriculture." "We have a sight on a former strip mine." "Hogs, chickens, goats." "Early 1990s this property looked like that." "For us, that means, we need to get creative on how we rebuild this, and re-purpose it." "You know, we have the purpose to build the soil." "And to generate revenue." "But, also, to train our trainees, you know, a wide variety of different activities." "I'd worked in the coal mines for like 18 years." "I went from $27 to $35 an hour to $10 an hour." "But, this has just been a real godsend." "I was always interested in farming." "Now, I get to do what I always wanted to do." "And besides that, I'm getting an education to boot." "So, it's just a win-win, for me." "We're clear to our staff, this is not a charity." "So, each enterprise has revenue targets that it's got to hit to prove that it's viable." "You know, we are investing in standing up businesses that are going to be built to last." "This will be the largest solar project in the state of West Virginia." "It's big enough, it's actually going to be a solar-powered plant." "Okay." "So, it will generate everything that you need?" "And then, there'll be some excess?" "Exactly, right." "A lot of excess, a lot of excess." "President Obama created this initiative." "And as the Obama administration winds down the investments that we're making are, certainly, intended to exceed the life of this administration." "It's a little scary." "I mean, coal is what we know in Appalachia." "It takes courage to think about doing it differently." "But, as long as we keep holding on to that past and just hoping to have another boom, which will, eventually, bust." "And a boom and a bust, then, then, then, newer and better is never going to come." "We are really at a crossroads, right now." "Some people see the writing on the wall that coal isn't coming back." "And they are forging ahead, creating new opportunities." "Other folks are just hanging on to the promise, which they are being told by their political leaders that coal will come back." "We're preparing bold action to lift the restrictions on American energy, including beautiful clean coal and we are going to put our miners back to work." "Obama's gone." "With the new leadership in Washington, there's a bright future." "There's plenty of coal still can be mined." "And coal can still power America." "The politicians are promising us that they'll make coal great, again." "I pray it does." "But, I don't ever see it coming back on the level that it was." "Millions of people are saying loudly and clearly, we don't want to be dependent on a 19th-century technology." "If, we're sitting, waiting for coal to come in and be our savior, again." "We're fooling' ourselves." "We don't want to be dependent on a power source that kills." "We live in constant fear every day." "Who fears their water?" "We don't live in a third world country!" "I think this is United States of America here!" "And we're fearing our water." "You cannot count on the government;" "you cannot count on these utilities;" "you can't even count on the politicians you elect to protect you." "People have to stand up and speak out for their rights!" "It's just going to get worse." "So, something has to change." "You got to do something different." "So, what's happening is not a war on coal." "It's coal's war on our health." "You want to be part of a good thinking smart city that says our climate and our environment are important." "The decisions local governments make at the ground level are really what's going to determine how we produce power in this country going forward." "It's just a matter of how quickly it's done." "This is a problem that's real." "It's happening, we're starting to feel the effects." "And if we're still burning coal, we're going to have a whopping climate problem." "We need to eliminate all of the coal over the next ten to fifteen years." "It's one of the quickest, easiest things we can do to address a huge public health crisis and address climate change." "As a nation, we owe a debt of gratitude to the people who sacrificed their lives to power this country." "And I think, the best way that we repay that debt is by building a diverse economy in those places that can actually sustain the generations." "That's all we want." "We'll work extremely hard." "Whatever we do, we'll do a good job." "Future generations are going to look back and see this time period as the pivot point." "This was the chance to either prepare for what is to come or to bury our heads in the sand and push the problem away for future generations."