“Wake up everyone! It’s time for eggs and sausage with Roberta!” I smiled to myself. It was the best wake-up call yet this trip. Instead of remaining in my sleeping bag, gathering the courage to subject myself to the teeth-chattering, hair-raising morning cold as I had every other morning, I was up out of bed and dressed within minutes. Today was the day we would receive a home cooked meal from Roberta, a retired K-6 teacher who now works on grants for the school district, her husband Dave, a retired math teacher and football coach, and their two neighbors, Ron and Maria (who had to join in on the hospitality after hearing about our arrival).
When we arrived, Roberta was outside and waiting. Were we happy to see her! After seven days of camping, seventy miles of biking, three days without a shower, and daily breakfasts consisting of a mixture of dried fruits, powerbars and instant oatmeal, our group of thirteen was ready and salivating for the comforts of home that these kind people had to offer.
After being generously fed and bathed, we began probing our new friends. They regaled us with stories of their lives and spoke with nostalgia of the town that Roundup once was. “It wasn’t always like this,” Roberta commented shaking her head. “The town’s a little depressed, as you can see,” added Dave with a hint of sadness, “all the young people have moved out, the older folk are passing away and there aren’t jobs available for the people that remain.”
Alan Olson, a proud resident of Roundup and a 12-year employee of Halliburton, who serves in the state legislature, currently is running for public service commissioner, and who has worked in the coal industry for most of his adult life, explained to us later that day that “Roundup is a city that has been burned.” It has been burned by the coal and oil industries that moved in and out of Roundup causing great economic boom upon entering and devastation and depression upon exiting. Alan, a proponent of the coal mines, however, wouldn’t blame the coal industry, but instead wants to do everything in his power to get them back and return the town to the economic and financial prosperity it once had. When asked about other forms of alternative energy that wouldn’t produce CO2 emissions and release other toxic chemicals into the air, Alan replied, “There are economics to everything and it drives the bus.” He believes the only way to financial prosperity in the immediate future is to rely on fossil fuels to provide the energy that the world is currently demanding. He adds, “How much are you willing to pay in order to bet something [global warming] might not happen?”
Wilber Wood, also a resident of Roundup and one of the founders of AERO (Alternative Energy Resources Organization) sees the issues differently. He asks, “How willing are we to bet on our health, livelihood and future as a species if we don’t act now to use clean energy?” Not unlike Alan, Wilber is concerned about his town of Roundup, the state of Montana, and the financial obstacles that lie ahead for these residents. However, he believes, as he outlines in Repowering Montana: A Blueprint for Home Grown Energy Self-Reliance, “an orderly transition to clean, renewable, sustainable energy economy ultimately will be less expensive for Montana consumers and will ultimately create more jobs.” He adds, “The barriers are not technological. The barriers are not institutional. The barriers are old fashioned economics and old fashioned politics.” “We have to stop looking for some big thing [coal mine, the oil industry] to save us, we need to save ourselves.”
That got me thinking. Wilber cares greatly for the town of Roundup, so much so that he has been fighting to save it for thirty plus years. Alan is no different. I will never forget the look on his face as he said, “This community deserves something… just look at it.” I think Roberta, Dave, Ron and Maria would agree. All these people just want to do the best they know how in order to save and protect the things they love. What we need to do now is find a way we can all get there together.
Lauren Green, graduate of the University of San Diego
Sounds like Alan and Wilber could use a good mediator. The world needs to talk out our problems, not fight them out!