‘Destructive’ extraction taking up prime real estate
Whether coal has been “good to Wyoming” or not is pretty debatable (“Coal state struggles,” 12/9/19). Much of the cleanup costs will fall on the state’s taxpayers, and Wyoming doesn’t have much of a tax base as it is, much less after a large part of its income (and its workers) leaves. Wyoming needs to reinvent itself. The enormous amount of land taken up by mining and other destructive extraction would make ideal places to put solar and wind farms, resources that Wyoming has in abundance and that are literally inexhaustible! It’s not like it’s going to spoil people’s view out there or cause any ecological destruction. (Hardly!) My God, if Wyoming embraced both technologies with open arms and invited in companies to take advantage of those resources, it could rival Texas’ envious solar and wind programs, probably within a decade. For much of those areas, the transmission lines for power are already in place. In the longer run, having those power sources — and the revenue taxes and employment they generate — close at hand would aid greatly in the funding of restoration of Wyoming to its former beautiful self, which is something else that makes a good jobs program.
—Andy Groz
