The political fight to keep coal counties poor
By Michael Abraham
Recent commentaries critical of the Obama administration’s regulatory approach to coal mining and his so-called “war on coal” (for example, “Griffith and Allen will fight for the 9th,” Sept. 24, commentary by Marcy Hernick) call for clarity.
Coal mining has been an active part of the economy in several Southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky counties, along with most of West Virginia, for more than 100 years. Early operations involved pick-and-shovel techniques of underground mining. During the 1950s and 1960s, mechanization of the mines put hundreds of thousands of miners out of work, as a single machine could do the work of 40 or more men. The populations of coalfield communities crashed as people fled the region in search of work.
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Abraham is a businessman and writer, living in Blacksburg.
October 7, 2012 - 8:01 AM
Abraham absolutely nails it:
“The Republican fervor for backing at all costs a dated and dying industry is unconscionable.
Let’s also be clear about coal’s impact on the region. Wherever coal has been mined, there is a strong inverse correlation between community wealth and coal production. According to WendyB. Davis (“Out of the Black Hole: Reclaiming the Crown of King Coal,” American University Law Review, 2002), “Appalachia is poor because of, and in spite of, its wealth of natural resources. Coal has made, and kept, the people of Appalachia poor. … The economic dependence on the coal mining industry, combined with the devastating environmental and health effects associated with coal mining, have resulted in unusable real estate, lower education levels and a generally lower standard of living than anywhere else in this country.”
If coal mining is so essential to the economy, why are the coalfields communities the poorest in the state, instead of the richest? Like extractive industries everywhere, the money flows directly to the top of the economic food chain, often to corporate managers and industrialists who neither live in nor care about the welfare of the affected communities. These are the people Griffith and Senate candidate George Allen really support.”
There’s simply no rational way to refute this.
Actually both my uncles are retired coal miners. 40 years. Have had excellent lives. Mid 70′s now. Appalachian Power company generates 70% or greater with coal. There are 34 utilities in this state. Before asking for a recent rate increase, APCO rates were at # 32(1-most expensive & 34 the cheapest). If not for coal there rates would not be this cheap. #34 is Dominion in far western Virginia. They generate with, you guessed it, coal. Before you come back with green energy. Don’t, not efficient and rare earth metals are mined also.
What happens when the coal runs out? Eventually it will. If you want to see what happens, drive to Hazleton or any other town in northeastern PA and just look at the poverty and the squalor. The bosses and their millions are long gone.
“America First” says both his uncles had excellent lives as coal miners. They were very lucky. What of those who are killed, maimed, crippled, or poisoned? People living “excellent lives” are a small minority in the coalfields. Drive through some of those counties and communities. What you see there is gut-wrenching poverty, rife with all the attending vices (malnutrition, child abuse and neglect, drug addiction, disease, and hopelessness). The coalfield poor are poorer than urban poor because they don’t have access to the same facilities and services, and because they’re less visible to us.
The plain truth was shown to us by Al Gore, now 20 years ago (!!) in his 1992 book, “Earth in the Balance.” This was way before the now-famous “hockey stick controversy” even started. Conservatives love to pick on Gore and they especially enjoy gloating over his loss to George W. Bush in 2000. The thesis of Gore’s masterful book, at least in part, is that we do not ever pay anywhere near the “full price” of any natural resources that we extract from the earth. Especially, we don’t pay the costs of environmental impact, which for coal is legend, and we don’t pay the costs of depletion. There will always be need for coal, gas, and oil to provide “sure” sources of energy for truly critical things (hospitals, etc.), but in the long term the only answers are to invent and use renewable energy sources, and most importantly to use less. The problem is that the best and surest way to bring about those changes is through public policy and that generally means Federal regulation and the Federal and state tax codes. Thus, in reality, the problem with coal and coal-fired electricity is actually that they are too inexpensive.
Mountaintop removal and all the other “drill and burn” mentality is like someone who approaches an intersection, sees the light turn first yellow and then red, sees traffic start to enter from the cross street, and then closes his eyes and floors it. It only works in the movies.
You bleeding heart liberal environmentalists should be the ones to have to tell the tens of thousands of people directly and indirectly associated with the coal industry in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia that they can no longer have a livelihood, that their lives will be turned upside down, and families destroyed, all in the name of the hoax of saving the planet from global warming!
Then you can start on natural gas, then next petroleum, and finally nuclear!
The Chicoms and India are rolling in laughter at how the once mighty US economy is bent on destroying itself along with that of Western Europe!
Beam me up, Scottie! There is no intelligent life down here.
Actually we have close to 300 years of coal if another spoon isn’t mined. You citing Al Gore. Let me count the ways he is a hypocrite.Electricity bill-3,000 per month. More carbon into the atmosphere on his private jet in one month compared to a year than I produce in my car. Paul you seem pretty smart-Only problem is Al Gore thinks he is smarter than than just about anyone on any particular subject.
There is plenty of “intelligent life down here”, it is being ignored, insulted and blamed for every misery any business, industry or group experiences.
When you have held yourself to Al Gore’s standards, (the real ones, not the right wing meme), then you will have standing to hide in anonymity and bray about his.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp
Why are folks so proud that Romney made money as a Wall Street Leveraged Buy Out firm, but berate Gore for investing in green energy and daring to make money?
“The Gores’ home is certified by the US Green Building Council as a Gold LEED certified home for retrofitted homes. As part of the LEED certification process, they upgraded their windows, lighting, appliances and insulation, among other items in and around the home [...] The residence is powered with a geothermal system as well as 33-solar panels. The Gores also participate in the “Green PowerSwitch” program offered by their utility [company].”
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/al-gores-mansion/
Thanks Michael. When an extractive industry is the only economic game in town, it perpetuates poverty by holding at bay other choices.
What if by some chance far southwest Virginia stood on the cusp of its own Renaissance? Even the Washington Post said long ago that if you couldn’t build a coal fired plant here without controversy, then nowhere.
The last two paragraphs of Mr. Abraham’s commentary say much about the truly stark choices in the upcoming elections for us all.
“Like extractive industries everywhere, the money flows directly to the top of the economic food chain, often to corporate managers and industrialists who neither live in nor care about the welfare of the affected communities. These are the people Griffith and Senate candidate George Allen really support.
The coalfields have been in an economic decline for a half century. When the waters are contaminated, the mountains are destroyed, the air is fouled and the people are poisoned, their fate in poverty is sealed forever. Is this the outcome we want our elected representatives to fight for?”
He is right about the economic slavery of the coal industry when it is “king”. It has not enriched the communities the way technology has, the way medical research facilities or colleges have. It was, from the beginning, a rigged game. Protecting that, and especially at the cost of regulations and federal oversight is just a recipe for disaster.
If the only way to “save coal” is to end the regulations and deepen the pockets at the top, it needs to die. But the truth is, that ending regulations and oversight is not what we need to do to save coal. We need to apply our efforts to getting and using coal better and making the communities stronger, more diverse and self sustaining. We could, but there is less profit in that for the big boys so they spend their money buying politicians to tell you it is all Obama’s fault and that the government is “killing” coal. Sadly, many will buy that, hook, line and sinker.