What to expect: one example

One example:

“We are gravely concerned that employees’ and retirees’ pensions and healthcare benefits will be taken away, and that millions of dollars of ad valorem taxes owed to Wyoming counties for coal already produced will be left unpaid,” the group’s vice chairman, Bob LeResche, said in a statement. “Our greatest fear is that reclamation of Cloud Peak’s large mines will cease, and that financial assurances required by law will prove inadequate.”

Cloud Peak is the fourth major coal producer in Wyoming, the top coal-mining state, to file for bankruptcy in recent years.

Whether it’s abandoned oil wells in western Canada or Appalachian mountain tops or declining oil pipelines, governments need to plan for the change to a low carbon economy. The government is our agent to protect working people now (or the taxes to fund it as an afterthought will be crushing).

Casper Star Tribune: Wyoming coal giant Cloud Peak files for bankruptcy

#climatechange