COASTAL DISAPPOINTMENT, INLAND JOY

WARMING WATERS AND LOSING LOBSTERS

Tim Pettis, a Maine lobsterman, said he’s felt the effects of climate change in the waters he works in, and wishes President Trump could feel the same.

“I think most people believe that the climate is changing over the years,” Pettis said as he stood in front of stacks of yellow lobster traps.”

Pettis said he and his fellow workers in the far north have been beneficiaries from the changes so far, because there are fewer lobsters further south in places like New York and Connecticut.

“Some of the fish are disappearing,” Pettis said. “We’re catching fish now in our traps that are southern fish; it just tells you that the water is warming up every year a little bit.”

KENTUCKY

In Centertown, Kentucky, retired coal miner Kenny Smith watched Trump’s TV announcement with approval.

“He’s keeping his promise that he’s going to help get the coal jobs back, help people get back to work, and that’s what we need, anywhere in this country,” Smith said. “You can go to Detroit, you can go to Pennsylvania you can go to West Virginia, there’s people that have been laid off for years, they’re just forgotten. And most of our factories have gone overseas, we need to get them back, I think he’s trying to do that.”

WEST VIRGINIA

In West Virginia’s coal country, Tod Tuttle, the co-owner of a small roadside grocery store near two mines, applauded Trump for what he’d done for the local industry.

“Under Obama our business was lacking big time. Trump’s taken over and we’ve come back around,” Tuttle said. “A lot of places here have come back around.”

West Virginia has had an uptick in coal production late last year and so far this year, attributed by industry officials to higher market prices and increased demand for metallurgical coal. Tuttle credits Trump. About the Paris agreement, he said that issue isn’t really with coal itself, which is still needed for reliable electrical generation without outages. “You can burn the coal, and if these companies do it right,” Tuttle said. “They always blame the coal mines. It’s not the coal mines. It’s the electric plants themselves.”

CALIFORNIA WANTS MORE WIND, CHANGE OF DIRECTION

The president’s decision disappointed Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association.

California and other states already are working to reduce carbon emissions by shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy and the cost of such alternatives has dropped dramatically, she said.

California and the United States must be on the “leading edge” of the shift in order to reap the greatest economic rewards, Rader said.