Jobs and climate change

We recently finished reading "Janesville" which we highly recommend.  It's a thorough and interesting narrative about a town in Wisconsin (where Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is from) where GM closed it's factory and the impacts on several GM and other plant workers.  One of the most searing observations is how many of the assembly workers from GM did not know how to use even the most rudimentary applications on a personal computer.  For instance, few knew how to turn one on, much less type a paper from a computer, which seriously inhibited their ability to be "re-trained" at the local community college.

As our current President unwinds environmental regulations, particularly in the energy sector, we have a suggestion.  Perhaps the quid pro quo for loosening regulations for many dying industries is that they have to provide mandatory computer training for all of their employees.  So that when they are finally laid off, they at least have some technological capacity.  That way, as we find jobs in restoring the polluted streams, restoring the mountain tops, remediating the open pit mines, all which will require the workers to have technological skills, they will be some what prepared.  

It's the least we can ask for if the energy sector wants to willy-nilly dig into the earth without any oversight.  Get your workers prepared for change.