Wyoming law sets aside $1.2 million to sue other states for going green (and not buying WY coal)

[essentialsaltes]

New law seeks to protect the Cowboy State’s coal interests

The bill recently signed into law allocates $1.2 million to the governor’s office for lawsuits against states with laws and regulations that impede Wyoming’s ability to export coal or force the early closures of coal-fired plants in the state. Wyoming is the country’s No.1 coal producer and the move to more renewable energy because of dropping prices of wind and solar power and concerns about climate change has battered the Cowboy State’s coal industry.

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[Colorado state Sen. Faith] Winter said Colorado has been a leader in working to provide a transition for workers displaced by changes in the energy industry, including the retirement of coal plants.

“We were the first state in the country to create an office of just transition. I would love to collaborate with Wyoming on how we have a just transition,” Winter said.

Wyoming would be better off investing the $1.2 million in preparing workers for changes rather than lawsuits, Winter added.

 

[Tanj]

Can this be explained further? What laws could one State pass that could impact on another's ability to mine coal and/or run coal fired plants?

 

[SigurdReginson]

Wyoming is a state with large swaths of empty, windy land. They'd stand to make a tidy profit if they started investing in solar and wind farms and exported that energy to neighboring states.

When I was down in Utah, there were tons of such energy harvesting farms being built out in rural areas. Seems the technology is getting cheaper and more practical to utilize.

 

[Desk trauma]

Let the market decide, unless it decides against coal.

 

[Hank77]

 

[Noxot]

the moral conflict is that conservative people are feeling that some are stealing their livelihood that they need in order to keep themselves and their family alive. the situation is complicated further because their tribal adversary is also doing other things to try to oppress them such as restrict themselves from protecting themselves with guns. all this because of on one level a bleeding-heart emotional knee-jerk reaction and a tribal virtue signallying over an over-amplified tragedy that hardly happens in comparison for example to how many cigarettes kill people or how many cars kill others.

this makes many people become suspicious as to the motives of those wishing to take away fundamental safely mechanisms and thus the entire philosophy of liberals is going to make conservative types naturally knee-jerk resistant to them even in sane matters such as global warming and in the over fishing of our oceans which pretty soon is going to make very very bad things happen to all which could lead to a destabilization and potential tyranny or massive amounts of unnecessary human deaths.

the solution is imo to be more rational and wise and less emotional and automatic. only enforce extremely important things and provide resolutions for all as much as possible. stop trying to make your tribe the supreme and only ruler, since liberals claim to want unity. the more each party can make more sense and not go insane over their limited tribe... the more they can refine into something better by having less corruption and more morality to themselves... the more chance humanity has to not wipe themselves or the planet out in the next few centuries.

I really don't know if humanity can make it out of the hole they are in, evils are going to increase greatly probably because humans are not used to adversity on the scale that we are creating. people can turn into absolute monsters when resources are limited. the worst of us are terrifying, such as the warlords that cut childrens hands off so that they can get donations from other countries. better solutions are required than merely throwing money at things without analyzing the fullness of the problems, the multifaceted aspects of a situation.

 

[Occams Barber]

New law seeks to protect the Cowboy State’s coal interests

The bill recently signed into law allocates $1.2 million to the governor’s office for lawsuits against states with laws and regulations that impede Wyoming’s ability to export coal or force the early closures of coal-fired plants in the state. Wyoming is the country’s No.1 coal producer and the move to more renewable energy because of dropping prices of wind and solar power and concerns about climate change has battered the Cowboy State’s coal industry.

--

[Colorado state Sen. Faith] Winter said Colorado has been a leader in working to provide a transition for workers displaced by changes in the energy industry, including the retirement of coal plants.

“We were the first state in the country to create an office of just transition. I would love to collaborate with Wyoming on how we have a just transition,” Winter said.

Wyoming would be better off investing the $1.2 million in preparing workers for changes rather than lawsuits, Winter added.

Like trying to hold back the tide...

OB

 

[Ana the Ist]

New law seeks to protect the Cowboy State’s coal interests

The bill recently signed into law allocates $1.2 million to the governor’s office for lawsuits against states with laws and regulations that impede Wyoming’s ability to export coal or force the early closures of coal-fired plants in the state. Wyoming is the country’s No.1 coal producer and the move to more renewable energy because of dropping prices of wind and solar power and concerns about climate change has battered the Cowboy State’s coal industry.

--

[Colorado state Sen. Faith] Winter said Colorado has been a leader in working to provide a transition for workers displaced by changes in the energy industry, including the retirement of coal plants.

“We were the first state in the country to create an office of just transition. I would love to collaborate with Wyoming on how we have a just transition,” Winter said.

Wyoming would be better off investing the $1.2 million in preparing workers for changes rather than lawsuits, Winter added.

The only way I can imagine these lawsuits would be valid is if these states are breaking contracts.

Edit- or impeding interstate trade

 

[essentialsaltes]

Can this be explained further? What laws could one State pass that could impact on another's ability to mine coal and/or run coal fired plants?

The OP cites two cases.

#1 Washington State is not allowing Wyoming access to ports to ship coal. The complaint may have some valid constitutional issues. I dunno.

#2 Colorado law is affecting the energy mix of a multistate energy company that owns a coal-mine in Wyoming. That company will divest its ownership of the coal mine to meet the carbon goals. If no one buys the coal mine, it might get shut down.

 

[Sabertooth]

Wyoming would be better off investing the $1.2 million in preparing workers for changes rather than lawsuits, Winter added.

$1.2M is not that much money in today's economy.

 

[Tanj]

The OP cites two cases.

#1 Washington State is not allowing Wyoming access to ports to ship coal. The complaint may have some valid constitutional issues. I dunno.

#2 Colorado law is affecting the energy mix of a multistate energy company that owns a coal-mine in Wyoming. That company will divest its ownership of the coal mine to meet the carbon goals. If no one buys the coal mine, it might get shut down.

1 sounds like one of those straight to the supreme court State v State things

2 Sounds like a free market economy, but it does follow the current conservative/republican trend of big government and heavy state regulation.

 

[Yttrium]

Wyoming is a state with large swaths of empty, windy land. They'd stand to make a tidy profit if they started investing in solar and wind farms and exported that energy to neighboring states.

They do have wind farms in Wyoming. Green power can be a little tricky there, though, because conditions can be harsh, with nasty blizzards in the Winter.

 

[Noxot]

if only coldness could be a viable energy resource ;/

symbolically heat, light, water, and even wind is closer to the divine truth which is why they are more useful to humans as energy resources. I wish a demon would make me hold his beer and prove that coldness can be useful for energy production.

 

[Tanj]

if only coldness could be a viable energy resource ;/

symbolically heat, light, water, and even wind is closer to the divine truth which is why they are more useful to humans as energy resources. I wish a demon would make me hold his beer and prove that coldness can be useful for energy production.

Or heat, light and water are more useful to humans which is why you think them "closer to divine truth", whatever that means.

More importantly, what brand of beer do demons drink?

 

[SigurdReginson]

They do have wind farms in Wyoming. Green power can be a little tricky there, though, because conditions can be harsh, with nasty blizzards in the Winter.

That's true, but those things can be winterized. Our neighbors to the north in Canada manage to do it just fine.

 

[SigurdReginson]

Or heat, light and water are more useful to humans which is why you think them "closer to divine truth", whatever that means.

More importantly, what brand of beer do demons drink?

Probably something especially foul, like Natural Light or Bud Light. I once had a beer called "Dead Guy Ale." At least the name wasn't misleading, cause it definitely tasted like something died. Maybe demons drink that?