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West Virginians Must Face Coal’s Future

See the original op-ed in the Charleston Daily Mail. West Virginians must face coal's future: We need to tax coal to help cover what it costs us By Ted Boettner The Daily Mail's Sept. 15 editorial, "Another coal study is not worth it," asserted that the costs imposed by the coal industry are not "facts" and that the Legislature shouldn't waste its time with such trivial matters. This should not prevent us from having an honest and evidence-based discussion about the costs and future of coal. While the coal industry provides tremendous economic benefits to the state, the costs associated with coal are real and significant. We ignore them at our own peril. The costs of regulating and supporting the industry, the legacy costs from past mining, and the external costs such as health care, damage to property and the environment add up to billions of dollars. Without these important public structures and the ability of the coal industry to externalize these costs, it would shut down tomorrow. While nobody wants to see this happen, we must diversify our state's economy. Coal production, whether we like it or not, will continue to diminish over the coming decades. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal production in West Virginia is projected to decline by 35 percent, to about 107 million tons per year in 25 years. In the southern coalfields, production is expected to drop by more than half. Refusing to acknowledge or accept this could have dramatic consequences...

Kentucky’s Piece of “the Federal Pie”

The Courier-Journal ran an editorial today further building on the case for federal support to Kentucky laid out in Sunday’s paper. Both pieces are worth a look. What are your thoughts on support to Kentucky – and especially, Kentucky’s Appalachian counties – in this time of state shortfall? Editorial | The federal pie Vows to reduce federal spending are popular on the campaign trail this year, but voters in Kentucky and Indiana better hope that no matter who wins the elections, most of the promises remain just talk. A report Sunday by Courier-Journal writers James R. Carroll and Lesley Stedman Weidenbener made clear just what the stakes are. Kentucky, one of the nation’s poorest states, ranked 12th among the 50 states in federal spending per resident during the 2009 fiscal year, according to Census Bureau data. That was a total of more than $50 billion, an average of $11,592.63 for every man, woman and child in the commonwealth. Indiana’s ranking isn’t as high — 32nd per capita — but it still amounts to a total of $61 billion in money from Washington. A couple of points should be clear to anyone who looks beyond the hollow sloganeering. One is that a big chunk of the money — 52 percent of the total in Kentucky, for example — comes from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If congressional candidates want to reduce those figures, they will have to cut popular programs on which ordinary citizens depend. That would be political suicide,...

Appalachia Offers Essentials for Business

From the Columbus Dispatch: Is Ohio’s Appalachia region a business hot spot? Yes, and as a native of Appalachia -Mingo Junction, close to Steubenville – I know this surprises people. Most just don’t associate economic progress with an area best known for coal mining, steel mills, power plants and timber harvest. Until now. Inc. magazine ran a feature story in May on entrepreneurs stimulating a rebirth of Youngstown. The city was compared to Silicon Valley but without the overhead expense. Then Reuters featured an in-depth look at Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia, an effort to raise awareness of the area’s desirability as a business location for entrepreneurs because of ready access to capital, knowledge and labor, supply chain and markets. And in May, Ohioans voted overwhelmingly to renew the Ohio Third Frontier initiative to ensure that promising entrepreneurial start-ups achieve commercial success. Diagnostic Hybrids Inc. is a perfect example of a company that benefited from Third Frontier support. The privately held Appalachian Ohio life-science company was so successful that it was recently acquired by Quidel Corp. for $130 million. These stories and many like them are evidence of a new paradigm: Business and Appalachia mix well in Ohio. Probably Appalachia’s most impressive resources are the spirit, work ethic, research expertise and technical know-how of its people. Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties are home to 25 institutions of higher education, including seven four-year universities and colleges. The result is a readily accessible labor pool of both young professionals and manufacturing workers with the...

Coal Conversation Continues Across Appalachia

Conversations about coal often turn to intense predictions about its fate – as an energy source, a job source, and a defining element of the Appalachian region. But to really understand where we, and coal, might be headed, comprehending the complicated role coal plays in the region’s economy, environment and social fabric currently is absolutely vital. Yesterday, the release of two information sources added to our collective understanding about coal. The first was the release of two reports in the series “Coal and Renewables in Central Appalachia” by Downstream Strategies and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. The two reports covered the impact of coal on the West Virginia and Tennessee state budgets respectively. Modeled on the same accounting methodology that the states use to assess economic benefits or contributions from the coal sector, this series seeks to provide a full-cost accounting of the impacts of coal (both positive and negative) on state budgets. Each report is premised with an explanation of the context in which it was written: The project is comprised of a series of research reports that will look not only at the impact of coal on state budgets, but will also investigate county-level impacts of the coal industry in Central Appalachia. In addition, this broader project will investigate the potential benefits that could result from renewable energy development and energy efficiency improvements within the region. The goal of these reports is to add to the public dialog so that policy makers at the...