Colstrip Montana

The Montana Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did a "listening session" in Colstrip Montana regarding the new EPA regulations around coal fired power plants. Colstrip, as the name suggests, is the largest such plant in Montana and the source of the greatest CO2 emissions in the state, so as one might suspect,the folks there are...apprehensive. Much as the "Blue -Green Alliance would like to pretend some win-win is possible, this is in fact the classic capitalist tragedy, a bunch of hard working folks caught between forces they only vaguely comprehend. All of them had to know in the back of their mind that this day was coming but I suspect the initial reaction will be to toe the Fox News line and blame extreme environmentalists, bureaucrats, the government, Al Gore,Obama, somebody, anybody but the industry which exploits them for profit. They will have to go home and explain to their children that somebody is going to burn the coal so why shouldn't it be us? That it is unfair that they should carry the burden. That the science isn't "proven". That a warmer Montana might not be all bad. And what does the DEQ actually gain by going to this place where the reaction is so pre-determined? Of course the people will express their immediate financial concerns and will be suspicious, after all, isn't The Market supposed to be making all these decisions? Why not just let The Market speak? Meanwhile, new reports show unemployment dropping to 5.8% with wages (indexed with inflation) remaining stagnant and all the gains in productivity going to those same shareholders and CEO's who own the Coal Industry. The ones the workers don't blame for their dilemma.