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I am very relieved that I'm not the only one discouraged by the discourse surrounding this article. The environmental establishment's unwillingness to win over labor undermines every single one of its goals. https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1345927005863350272
This article is a literal gift to left organizers and politicians. Here is a pool of potential allies to bring into the fight. These are people abandoned and cast aside and looking for something to believe in, to support. Give them that. Bring them over to your side.
There is a well-worn myth that the oil & gas industry pays well for both white collar and blue collar alike. No one is challenging that. Seems like an opportunity? Most white collar professionals report declining salaries, above 60-hour weeks, dwindling benefits, and uncertainty.
They aren't happy and tired of the bust and bust cycle. How can people call themselves labor organizers if they miss this labor organizing potential? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Record-setting-job-losses-unemployment-rate-in-15288675.php
Here are people with the very skills necessary for retiring aging fossil utilities. https://twitter.com/emilygrubert/status/1334573362358706176
Here are the people who can design and engineer our nation's offshore wind farms. https://medium.com/@megan.milliken/louisiana-should-be-the-heart-of-the-green-new-deal-4e33a0db8a6a?source=your_stories_page-------------------------------------
Here are the people who can help identify, repair and plug, and monitor the millions of oil and gas wells, remove pipelines, and lay a new electric grid. https://medium.com/@megan.milliken/oil-and-gas-workers-get-a-raw-deal-its-time-for-a-fair-and-green-new-deal-741bbe2cce5c
We still need desk workers. We still need petroleum engineers.
The ambivalence and sneering contempt towards frontline oil and gas workers is something I encounter with frequency. No one wants to plug in their laptop into a LNG plant, but at the moment, it does. Someone risked his life for you to turn on the lights. https://apps.publicintegrity.org/blowout/us-oil-worker-safety/
Don't just copy and paste a "Just Transition" quote into your climate essay and then sneer at your fellow neighbors who like everyone else in this gd decade needs to pay debt, medical bills and downwardly mobile. We need solidarity. We need to offer a better future. And we can.
