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The Otter Creek Coal Mine Debate

Are we not a nation willing to sacrifice for the greater good? Are we not a nation with a proud history of innovation?

By Melissa Hartman

I have been reading certain arguments recently by folks such as Flathead Beacon columnist Dave Skinner, and state Sen. Alan Olson, regarding protests of the Otter Creek Coal Mine. I also attended the Whitefish City Council meeting, which Mr. Skinner referred to in his Sept. 10 column “Rising Tide?” One of the arguments from Mr. Skinner seems to be that folks have no right to protest against the building of a new coal mine when they themselves utilize products that have been manufactured thanks to coal or other fossil fuels. This argument is difficult to understand. It would be like someone saying that because they have cancer, they have no right to fight for a cure. I am fully aware of my dependence on fossil fuels; I am aware of it every day when I get into my car to drive off to work. However, does that mean we cannot aspire to change our circumstances? This seems absurd if not downright un-American. Have we as a nation not always striven to make things better? Mr. Skinner states, “I wonder if my America, where proud people think things through and make things happen, is gone?” From my perspective, that America is alive and well because there is a new generation of people who ARE thinking things through. We are thinking them all the way through to the distant future so that our children, our grandchildren and their children will have a planet that is as habitable and beautiful as the one we have today, hopefully even more so. We still strive to make things happen only those things are not coal mines, those things are solar power, wind power and other renewable energies. We strive to make things more and more energy efficient and to compete with other countries, which are already doing these things so that we don’t get left behind.

Similarly, Mr. Olson’s argument is equally untenable. He expresses in a guest column also from Sept. 10 that because Asia will get its coal from somewhere it should be by us. We might as well be the ones to make a profit. Drug dealers could make the same argument. Someone is going to supply drugs, so why not me? With the amount of manmade carbon pollution continuing to grow, we are getting to a point that we have to look at the morality of mining a substance that we know will cause harm for generations to come. Let us shift our attention to where it should be, investing in renewable energy and enhancing our energy efficiency. Are we not a nation willing to sacrifice for the greater good? Are we not a nation with a proud history of innovation? Let us not be a nation that accepts the status quo. Let us continue to lead instead of follow and look to the future instead of the past.

Melissa Hartman
Whitefish