You, the Industry. We, the Community.

June 12, 2018

The intersection of industry and the personal lives of Americans remains a key focus of Power the Future, and that topic was recently covered by Debra Kahn from E&E News. Kahn published an interesting piece called “Some Greens Won’t Miss Jerry Brown.”

In an attempt to capture the progressive left’s enthusiasm for Gubernatorial Candidate Gavin Newsom, Ms. Kahn quotes John White, the executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies. His words about Mr. Newsom caught our eye:

“I think he’s going to be aligned with and give voice to the environmental justice community. I think he’s going to be skeptical about the influence of the petroleum industry.”

Community and Industry: an interesting selection of collective nouns. Those who believe in protecting and restoring the environment are a community. Personal. Intimate. Humanized.

Of course, those who work in energy are an industry. Impersonal. Faceless. Cold.

This false, binary choice is one Power The Future fights adamantly. We believe we can have both a robust energy industry and environmental stewardship. We have put a face on the millions of Americans who make up that energy industry.

California’s energy workers are critical to the state’s prosperity and employment, not to mention the fact that their work powers the nation’s most populous state. We wrote about it in great detail here. Gov. Brown, for as much as he lead the charge on environmental issues, was always cognizant of the importance of energy workers. So, for us and for the roughly 350,000 thousand men and women who work in California energy, we can only hope that whomever the state’s next governor is will have the same respect and commitment.

Energy workers in California are a community. They raise families, pay taxes, and contribute to California’s overall success as well as its robust and diverse society. It’s unfortunate, but not surprising, that Mr. White sees them as an “industry” and not as individuals who Power The Future.

As long as Power The Future continues, we will always stand up for the men and women in the energy industry, in California, and in every state.