This commission has been working on economic development for over 50 years? Looks like it’s been a failure.
Well thank goodness they won’t have it anymore then.
Not when you consider how things were before the ARH and Johnson’s War on Poverty.
Put it this way, coal fired power plants are being decommissioned rapidly and it isn’t because of mysterious Obama era regulations, this trend has been going on for a long time and it is the market at work. Coal is expensive to mine and ship (gas can be shipped via pipeline, or liquefied and shipped or sent via train), it is costly to clean up after, but the big reason is that natural gas power plants are a lot cheaper to operate and they last a lot longer, because natural gas is a clean burning fuel. Coal fired plants require a lot of maintainence because the fuel is dirty, it leaves behind the ash that needs to be disposed of (and it often has toxic heavy metals in it), gas leaves nothing behind. The cost of natural gas has plummeted and stayed steady because there is so much supply. Coal at one point was over 50% of all power production (90% of the coal burned these days is electricity), it is now around 33% and falling and there is a reason for it. There was some hope they could export the coal because it is generally anthracite and cleaner than what they have in China, but China is pushing toi get away from coal as others have said, plus shipping it overseas is expensive.
The other thing to note is that most coal mining is done by stripping away the top of the mountain using heavy equipment that requires a lot less jobs, the underground mining many of these people did is economically a lot less efficient.
The whole coal thing was a con job IMO, promoting coal these days is like promoting returning people to horse and buggies so they can revitalize the buggy whip industry.
This isn’t remotely limited to coal mining. Almost all low and mid skilled jobs could be automated in the long run.
^But these people in WVA/PA/KY were told their coal mining jobs were going to come back. They believed the lies over people who were telling them the truth.
^Now, now, emilybee, we have to give it a chance to see how it works. 20-30 years maybe. No need to get ahead of ourselves.
It would be nice if we could all feel empathy for all suffering people and nicer still if we could recognize the institutional problems that drive our lives rather than reflexively blaming horrendous social and economic conditions on individuals, especially ones with little to no real power.
As for blaming poor WV residents for the current administration, well, they didn’t put it in power. Studies consistently show that rich people everywhere vote GOP and poor people everywhere don’t–in this case, many just didn’t vote period because the Dems offered them nothing they valued.
Who was telling them the truth? The Dems have been lying to us for just as long. Maybe not as boldly (or “authentically”) as our current administration, but political lying has become completely normalized and accepted. I’ve expected politicians to lie pretty much non-stop since I was 11. I’m 44 now.
@marvin100 - I seem to recall a recent presidential candidate saying something like this:
"As for blaming poor WV residents for the current administration, well, they didn’t put it in power. Studies consistently show that rich people everywhere vote GOP and poor people everywhere don’t–in this case, many just didn’t vote period because the Dems offered them nothing they valued.
It wasn’t Betsy and Thurston going to all those rallies.
They fell for the con. They were warned and chose to ignore it. Not my problem they are fools.
" promoting coal these days is like promoting returning people to horse and buggies so they can revitalize the buggy whip industry."
Perhaps next we will bring back jobs in the whale oil industry.
@sherpa - yes, and we can’t evaluate whether she was lying because she lost. If she’d won, though, I’d be shocked if she spearheaded an economic revival in West Virginia, especially considering the Dems’ history in WV as detailed in my earlier link.
The collapse of the economy and the continued oppression of the most vulnerable among us is all of our problem, and the policies that enable those conditions won’t serve the rest of us well either. We’re all in this together, like it or not.
Let the people they voted for and the citizens of their own states bail them out of their foolishness.
Poor Willy…
Exit polls suggest that racial and religious identity is now a much stronger factor than income level in voting patterns.
http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls
Has that ever not been the case? The GOP has won white people for 52 years running.
The thing that can actually be addressed and changed through politics, though, is the economy, and both major parties have abdicated any idea of really changing it. I mean, the Dems’ idea of economic policy is to partner with Wall St. and then gently nudge it and hope it plays nice from time to time.
The NIIT, CFPB, and fiduciary rule were more than gentle nudges. Perhaps not sufficient overall to stop or reverse the financialization of the economy, but it is not like they were the same as the GOP in this respect.
Yeah, not the same, for sure, but nudges still, imo. As long as both parties are in bed with finance (and as long as electoral laws encourage that alliance), economic policy will be more or less written by Wall St. Cory Booker 2020 anyone? 