Kentucky leaders should position state, EKY for more new energy opportunity...

New energy – wind, solar and efficiency – is a huge opportunity for eastern Kentucky right now. That is, if our leaders are willing to take advantage of it. Energy will be a hot topic during the Kentucky General Assembly, which is now getting into full swing. That’s especially true in light of a growing need to develop a clean energy plan to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan, released last year. As the Lexington Herald-Leader reports: “Utilities went on a wind and solar building binge in 2015, The Washington Post reports, while stock prices for both industries surged after Congress extended tax credits for renewables in last month’s spending deal. Coal company values, by contrast, have fallen steeply, setting the stage for more bankruptcies and layoffs. Despite a glut of cheap fossil fuels, 60 percent of new investment in power plants is going into renewables, reports the International Energy Agency.” All of this growth in new energy brings jobs with it, too, according to the Herald-Leader:  Between 2008 and 2012, more U.S. jobs were created in wind and solar (79,000 direct and indirect) than lost in the coal industry (49,530), according to a Duke University study. We in eastern Kentucky know what it’s been like for the coal industry the last couple of years as the industry has slid into collapse. We know and feel the loss of jobs and economy and community that’s happened as a result. If there is an option for us to build up our clean energy infrastructure in a way...

Mountain Music Exchange owners hope new model of trade-ins, online sales will usher in new era of doing business in EKY...

Walking into Mountain Music Exchange in Pikeville, Ky., is a bit jarring. From the outside, the shop on Highway 23 looks nondescript enough. There’s an old radio-record player combo on one side of the lobby, next to a plush leather couch where parents wait on their children receiving music lessons in rooms down the window-lined hallway on the opposite side of the hall. Keep walking down the hall toward the shop, though, and you’ll step into somewhat of a fantasy music world of the three business-owners’ own design and making. Guitars of all shapes, sizes, colors and acoustics line the walls; drum sets and keyboards are set up in the middle of the large floor space; a wooden stage is positioned on the left side of the room, and atop it sits banjos and mandolins. There’s also a repair shop in the back of the store, along with the online Mountain Music Exchange headquarters, where items for sale are photographed for the online marketplace. The whole shop is the realization of a vision shared by three men, who also happen to be friends and family: Tony Mullins, Kevin Harmon and Jared Arnett (who is also the director of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region initiative). Mullins used to operate a recording studio in Pike County, and had partnered with Harmon to convert the back of the studio into retail space in which to buy, sell and trade guitars. Eventually, it became apparent that more space was needed as the trio’s...

Climate justice funder shares why his foundation supports, funds just transition...

The role of philanthropy in any just transition is critical. Getting funding for a program can mean whether or not that program continues to exist, or is axed. Trouble is, organizations who are working on systems change in order to bring about a just transition often aren’t funded long-term. This often means they are beholden to yearly re-application and arduous restrictions on what can and cannot be done with the grant they’ve received. (Chorus photo: Vivian Huang, Campaign and Organizing Director at Asian Pacific Environmental Network) That’s what makes the Chorus Foundation so unique. Chorus is more interested in long-term, place-based funding for organizations in communities on the frontlines of climate justice. And after ten years of work, Chours founder Farhad Ebrahimi has some reflections to share about what’s worked for them, why they believe in funding just transition strategies, and what other funders can learn from their experience. I should say, in full disclosure, that the Chorus Foundation is a long-term committed funder of the Mountain Association for Economic Development, of which this blog is a product. However, that connection has nothing to do with why we believe the foundation’s approach is so important. Take Ebrahimi’s explanation about why it’s so important to help build a just transition with philanthropy (bolding is my emphasis): Here’s something that everybody knows: things have got to change. Our extractive system simply cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged. In fact, we can see that things are already changing; it’s inevitable. But justice is not inevitable, and any...

Of 36 newly announced POWER Initiative grant awards, Central Appalachia will receive 22...

The Obama Administration announced yesterday new federal grants totaling more than $14 million for partnerships in 12 states and tribal nations. The money comes from the POWER Initiative, which the administration bills as the down-payment on the POWER+ Plan, and addresses immediate need created by the collapse of the coal industry. The POWER+ Plan proposes an almost $10 billion investment in coal communities to help them transition into a new economy.  Of the 36 total awards, Kentucky is getting 14. With those 14 factored in, Central Appalachia is getting 22. That’s a lot of federal money making its way into the mountains, and it’s definitely going to help move the region forward. Some highlights of projects being funded with these grants: $200,000 EDA grant to Appalshop, in Whitesburg, Ky., for Mines to Minds: The Southeast Kentucky High Tech Workforce Certificate Project. Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is also awarding $75,000 to this project. The project will develop a one-year IT workforce certificate program targeted to communities affected by the reduction in coal employment. $100,000 EDA grant to Perry County Fiscal Court in Hazard, Ky., for the Southeastern Kentucky Economic HUB Opportunities Diversification Implementation Project. This project will fund a position that coordinates implementation of the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy across targeted industry clusters, while leveraging existing resources to invest in skills development and job placement for dislocated workers. $80,000 to the Kentucky River Area Development District in Hazard, Ky., to fund a first-ever inventory of existing businesses in the region. $274,500 to...

Local support for POWER+ Plan growing like wildfire

Support for the POWER+ Plan is picking up steam in Central Appalachia, as several localities have now passed resolutions in support of the plan. The Norton, Va., City Council became the first in the nation to pass a resolution supporting the POWER+ Plan in July. They were joined shortly after by the Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission and the Wise County Board of Supervisors in Virginia. City Councils in Whitesburg and Benham, Ky., passed similar resolutions last week, and have been followed this week by the Kentucky Fiscal Courts of Letcher and Harlan Counties, and the Campbell County Commission in Tennessee. In each case, the resolutions passed unanimously, which goes to show that local leaders have no qualms about accepting assistance for their communities when it is desperately needed. They live with the reality of coal’s collapse surrounding them every day, and they know the billions of dollars being offered to Central Appalachia through the POWER+ Plan would be an enormous help in bolstering their local economies. Mountain people might be prideful, but they also aren’t too proud to accept help when it comes, no matter from where it derives. The resolutions being passed are worth quoting: “The POWER+ Plan includes programs that would disburse $1 billion in funding for Abandoned Mine Land (AML) projects that create long-term business and economic opportunities; would invest millions in workforce development and job training programs in communities impacted by the decline of the coal industry; and would strengthen the health and pension plans of 100,000 retired...

People who are poor should be central in SOAR leadership

Former War on Poverty anti-poverty worker, Robert W. Shaffer has some advice about how to improve upon past efforts at economic transition in eastern Kentucky: Let people who are poor have seats at all tables where decisions about the future of the region are being made. From Shaffer: Poverty statistics will once again be used to bring millions of dollars to Eastern Kentucky to be spent by those who are not poor. What is never considered is the enormous price poor families pay to produce these statistics. They are, after all, the expert witnesses. Who has a greater stake in SOAR’s success? It makes common sense that poor people should have seats at the table where decisions are made about how those funds will be spent. But it is an open secret that many in leadership do not want poor people to acquire the confidence to participate at the highest levels in programs designed to enable them to rise out of poverty. The Shaping Our Appalachian Region Initiative has been key to shifting the overarching conversation about transition in the region, and has helped bring in millions in federal investments. However – as we’ve written about previously on this blog – the entire initiative has a long way to go before all eastern Kentuckians are equally represented among it’s leadership and participants. As Shaffer points out: “SOAR’s present leadership consists of the one percent of the population accustomed to controlling all federal and state funds available to the region. The executive board...

Economic transition advice from a seasoned EKY grassroots leader...

Gwenda Johnson has some advice for modern-day eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia about how we move our economy forward, and she talked about it recently with Making Connections News. From MCN: Johnson grew up on a family farm in Elliot County, and has worked as a county extension agent for family and consumer sciences. Recently, she was asked by her county judge to focus her efforts on community economic development. She spoke with MCN and WMMT-FM about her hopes for the region in a piece created for the “Appalachia Speaks” series – short videos featuring voices and visions of grassroots leaders. “It’s time for us to gather our people,” Johnson says. “Maybe it’s time for a revolution. What can we do? What are the strengths of this mountains and the hills? What so we have that we can use?” Watch Johnson’s full interview...

AML white paper gives recommendations to make program work better for Central Appalachia’s economic transition...

UPDATE, 7-9-15: The full text of the AML white paper can now be downloaded at the link to the press release. Scroll to the bottom for the link to download.  The AML Policies Priority Group – a multi-stakeholder group examining the abandoned mine lands fund – released a white paper today that assesses the opportunity for the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program in Central Appalachia. From a press release about the white paper’s release: The paper provides recommendations for specific policy changes that would provide distribution of special funds to states based on criteria such as number of remaining abandoned mine lands sites, unemployment rates, and opportunity for economic development, rather than rates of coal production as the current law mandates. The central aim of the research paper, which includes input from a broad range of stakeholders across the region, is to analyze the AML program and identify potential improvements. Some of the paper’s key findings include: The AML program supported 1,317 jobs in Central Appalachian states, and delivered a value-added impact of $102 million in these states. It will take at least $9.6 billion to remediate the remaining 6.2 million acres of lands and waters ravaged by abandoned mine problems. AML funding is not distributed according to need. Congress should enact legislation that replaces all AML sub-funds with a single distribution mechanism based on a state’s percentage of the updated federal AML inventory. AML funds are a big part of President Obama’s POWER+ Plan proposal, and this paper aims...