The audience included a row of miners in uniform, plus a few white-collar representatives of the coal companies. Farmers being impacted by longwall mining in central Illinois came too.
This definitely wasn't just a crowd of stereotypical tree-huggers. I can't say that everyone agreed about everything by the end of the meeting, but people came a lot closer to understanding each other.
One of the little-known secrets of the environmental movement is that it often has common ground with coal miners. Safe mines with unionized workers have better environmental practices. The most environmentally destructive mining methods, like mountaintop removal and modern longwall, also employ fewer miners.
Those areas of common ground, including the need to create green jobs in coal country, were the themes Jeff Biggers focused on.
I have become more convinced than ever that we can bridge the fabricated divide between coal miners and coal mining communities and environmental organizations like the Sierra Club by laying out a roadmap for a just transition to a sustainable and clean energy future.
The coalfields should be ground zero for any clean energy revolution. We need to aggressively push for a GI Bill for coal miners for retraining and placement in a clean energy economy, dedicate massive investment funds and assistance to clean energy manufacturing and energy efficiency initiatives in the coalfields, and launch a reforestation program in the forests and prairies.
If that's going to happen, we need to reject the empty promise that we can develop the downstate economy by subsidizing a single industry. It will only leave us as empty handed and disappoitned as Mattoon.
In case you missed it, also check out the Illinois Times article that quotes one of the miners.