There might be light, yet, in the energy industry

Maybe we are the last ones to know.
After all this trend has been going on for some time and we’re beginning to wonder if it’s just our leaders who don’t see it.
Last week, JP Morgan Chase & Co. announced it will no longer do business with coal companies.
In case you’re not familiar, JP Morgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm and one of the largest banking institutions in the United States.
That announcement came in tandem with that bank reporting it would extend $200 billion in financing to clean and renewable energy companies in the next five years.
If you’re thinking “So what?” or how would we know about this trend since it just happened, take a look at what’s happened in the past five years.
As for financial institutions bailing on coal companies, in March 2015, PNC Financial Services Group joined other banking firms in seriously restricting its financing of mountaintop removal mining companies.
PNC is the fifth largest bank in the United States. Among others that restricted mountaintop financing then was JPMorgan Chase &Co.
And just last year at least four major coal companies filed for bankruptcy in one five-month period, including Murray Energy Co. Not five years, five months, just last year.
Not so long ago we took our legislators to task for leading our state in the wrong direction with their emphasis on coal rather than other economic opportunities.
Though it’s far from convincing, at least two important pieces of legislation advanced recently from one chamber to the other, opening the door a crack for a new mindset on energy.
HB 4574 creates an advisory committee in the Department of Commerce to cope with the effects of coal and timber layoffs and create an overall transition plan as well as another for workers and communities.
Another bill, SB 583, that creates a program to further develop renewable energy resources, on Friday was on second reading in the House, after passing the Senate unanimously.
Once again, the commerce department pushed this bill, claiming big companies want to know that they can use renewable energy sources before relocating here.
Perhaps not so oddly, these bills have legs because of commerce, that’s mission is to spur development and growth.
Despite the determination by some to cling to the past, today’s service and information economy bears little resemblance to that of our past.
As one state senator recently observed, “History is being made today. I believe this is the first solar (power) bill ever brought forth on the Senate floor, and I can guarantee you it’s the first being brought by a coal miner.”
Both these bills represent baby steps, but they are still some of the first.