@techmom99 - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20399841/#Comment_20399841
When I was in LA and Alaska, I met young adults who had reluctantly left their home towns in our state because there were no jobs and they had to relocate to get a job to earn a living. Yes, it is a hardship but they did what was needed. These were not glamorous jobs–working at a car rental desk and gift shop, but they were jobs that paid bills.
I am a lefty.
Then you should be as disappointed and furious with the Dems as I am 
^Well I’m not because I am also a realist.
@HImom - that makes sense if the number and quality of jobs is static (although even in that scenario you’re talking about a totally rootless populace, which doesn’t breed community or “family values”), but that’s not the case in today’s US, where quality jobs are rapidly disappearing, not just moving from place to place while maintaining the same abundance.
If they were actually more left leaning, they would have voted more Green than GOP.
But many are socially conservative, so a GOP candidate who speaks their hot button (anti trade) and is socially conservative matches them better than Wall Street GOP candidates, Democrats, Greens, or Libertarians.
No, I do realize that there are fewer and fewer jobs where folks can earn a living wage. More and more places are replacing workers with automation. I prefer human cashiers and tellers to machines but increasingly I have no choice.
I was responding in kind to other prior posts about communities where there are no jobs and the lengths some have had to go to to get jobs. Yes, they would definitely prefer to remain in their community but can’t with the shrinkage my pool of available jobs.
I believe they had college degrees, tho it certainly wasn’t required for the level of work they were doing. There are low paying entry level jobs in HI with little to no chance for advancement, which have vacancies and are hard to keep filled, but not nearly as many jobs that pay enough to actually pay rent/mortgage and living expenses.
And who has been fighting for a raise n the federal minimum wage? And who has been enacting raises in minimum wages in cities and states? It’s certainly not the people the unemployed coal miners vote for. Yet, we are the bad guys.
Well, screw them.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/losing-west-virginia/
Losing West Virginia
Few states better illustrate the contradictions and failures of the Democratic Party than West Virginia.
First, I’m not sure how “Left” the Green Party is–and I’m really not sure how serious it is, since it materializes only every four years for national elections and makes no real effort down ballot.
Second, well, I completely agree, and the Dems prioritizing of social progressiveness at the expense of Left economic causes is part of the condescension that so alienates people who aren’t moved by things like trans-friendly bathrooms. Both current major parties have abdicated the economy to the financial industry. Both of them. Economic conditions aren’t even in the conversation. It’s tragic and helps understand how the Dems have lost 1000 seats in just eight years.
Coal is not as inevitably dead as some posters are implying. If crude ever goes over $120/barrel and stays there, lots of other energy sources will start to look more attractive. There’s still EPA emissions and carbon regulations, to contend with, but even those aren’t fixed.
That may not help WV, though, @roethlisburger:
Being uncompetitive at today’s oil and natural gas prices, doesn’t mean uncompetitive at any future oil and natural gas price.
Sure, of course. Anything’s possible. But possible is not the same as plausible, and if oil goes up to $120/barrel “and stays there,” then coal employment will be one of the least of our worries.
If oil gets to $120 per barrel, the frackers and other oil seekers will be back looking for oil at full speed. This will result in even more natural gas being found as a byproduct. Electric utilities favor natural gas over coal because it is less expensive, and even more of it around will tip the calculation even more strongly toward natural gas.
Since oil is predominantly used for transportation, you might say that higher oil prices may increase the trend toward electric vehicles, which in some places get grid electricity from coal. However, increased demand for grid electricity will likely be satisfied with increased generation from natural gas (and solar and/or wind in some places are now cheaper on a utility scale even without any subsidies).
It is unlikely that people will want to switch to shoveling coal into their cars, trains, airplanes, etc. if oil gets to be too expensive. Or switch to coal for home heating in the northeast.
Actually, social conservatism now is more about race/ethnicity and hostility toward religious minorities these days, versus (anti-)LGBT. In North Carolina, the GOP incumbent governor did worse than the GOP candidates did in other statewide elections and lost; he was best known for an anti-T state law.
The Democrats tried to walk the middle path of giving Wall Street much of what it wants, but making it pay taxes (e.g. Net Investment Income Tax to fund the ACA) and submit to some regulation and consumer protection (e.g. the now-cancelled fiduciary rule). But that (a) merely slowed down, not stopped or reversed, the increasing power of Wall Street over the economy, and (b) was not particularly marketable, since middle path policies do not get people with strong feelings enthused about them, while leaving everyone something that s/he is dissatisfied with (i.e. at best they tend to be seen as “lesser of various evils” by all sides). Of course, now we have the GOP seemingly about to give Wall Street all of what it wants, and lower taxes and less regulation as well.
^The US isn’t the only player. China still produces and consumes a ton of coal. Eventually, they’ll start depleting their own reserves, and coal is a global commodity. Historically, natural gas and oil prices have been positively correlated, so they have moved somewhat in tandem in the past. Coal is still 33% of electricity generation. If they maintained close to the same market share and we switched to electric transportation, that could add to demand. Renewables, other than hydropower which has its own set of problems, are at 7% of electricity generation.
Yes. When China depletes its cheaply mined coal it will face the same problem WV faces. China is already aggressively pursuing sustainable solutions because it knows where that cul de sac ends.
China is actively trying to reduce coal consumption for various reasons, including the notoriously heavy air pollution in many cities, including the capital Beijing. Meanwhile, it is installing solar electricity generation at a fast pace. Coal consumption in China has fallen for the last three years.
New generating capacity to meet increased demand from increased electric vehicle use will almost certainly be sources other than coal. A utility would rather build a natural gas plant that will be cheaper and cleaner-burning. Those in the plains (windy) and sun belt (sunny) are finding that wind turbine and solar panel prices are low enough that, with free “fuel”, they are now attractive in many cases.