For many people the burning of fossil fuels is a moral issue. They see the burning of these fuels as destructive to the environment and many of the zealots advocate an immediate stoppage on the use of and exploration for these fuels.
I am sure in a society that values the life of a poodle or stray cat on the same level as a human being, these children of Gaia, the earth spirit, would certainly consider a coal fired plant an evil equal to that of a slave plantation. In fact, in their distorted view they might consider the carbon producing process worse.
Texas, perhaps more than any other state, bases a major portion of its economy in providing crude oil, natural gas and the refining of these products. For many, I'm sure our fossil fuel based Texas economy is as evil as that our slaveholding ancestors.
Oil production and refining are legal industries with billions invested or put at risk. Should those who feed their families and have staked their futures on this industry just sit by quietly, while it is destroyed for political and junk-science reasons. Perhaps those who could never understand why the South would leave the Union might understand this better through this comparison of issues, how the South, both rich and poor, felt prior to the American Civil War.
Jim