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We will have a man running for Senate that just had his wages attached because he refuses to pay his bills. That is who will represent us and we will wonder why the countries finances are in such a mess.
Coal is objectively important, however, its importance has rapidly declined over the last 50+ years. My point is, the state should not incentivize a dying industry. The natural resources are here, if a company finds that it's profitable to mine here, then let them. But focusing on it as a "sole industry" has caused WV more harm than good. WV relying on coal is the equivalence of relying on paper mills. I'm not saying the state should close down coal mines, however, using "we have coal mines" as an excuse to not focus on actual economic development has led to extreme poverty, poor education levels, low opportunity, and up until very recently, catastrophic budget issues.
I don't want any politician that says something along the lines of "I'll work for coal miners" or "Restore coal in WV" or the like because it's a tell-tale sign of someone coming into office like the absolute idiots that voted/argued against the Form Energy incentives.
The state needs about 50 Form Energy, Nucor, and Procter Gamble like-incentives in order to catch up with the top half of the national economy after decades of abandonment.
At this point, I think I'd make a great WV gubernatorial candidate, although I am too young (to run), and not obsessed with coal so I probably wouldn't win a party nomination. I'd instead focus on things like infrastructure with major broadband expansion and road improvements to include beautification, while removing isolation by creating easily accessible thoroughfares connecting every county in the state with one of WV's 10 largest cities, education ratings/scores & overall state education percentages, teacher & correctional worker pay, economic development through nationally-lead incentives for white collar careers and blue collar manufacturing, and focusing on rehabilitation to address our opioid crisis and extreme penalization to those responsible. I would address the absolutely disgusting living conditions some rural WV's face by working with HUD to incentivize the development of quality affordable apartment communities, while purchasing run-down "hollers" and restoring them to their former natural beauty. I would encourage community consolidations and weaken annexation laws to allow for cities to have an actual tax base.
I dream of a WV that is home to thriving cities and vibrant towns and suburbs. Natural beauty and outdoor recreation, but also entertainment venues, shopping/dining options, tourist attractions, nationally-ranked schools, and a plethora of job opportunities for those growing up in WV, as well as bringing in out-of-state transplants who can take advantage of a state with quality schools while experiencing growth and still holding true to "West Virginia" values.
No, I'm not running.
I'm still confused why you are down on MD politics if this would be your vision as an elected official. Not knocking your ideas, but they will take a boatload of money, and that has to come from somewhere. I know you said you disliked the politics of PA and MD, but are you really sure? Again, not an attack, but if what you want is a part of Appalachia where the roads are great, the internet is fast, teachers have upper middle class pay scales for their region, and the state's hand is heavy, you are only about 30 miles from its border.
WV will continue to mine coal. Very little of it will be going to power plants in the future. Nobody is building new coal fired plants. There are a number of reasons for that, but regardless of the reasons, coal power plants are not being built, and the newest ones are approaching the end of their useful life. Studies are underway now on the viable life left at the John Amos plant in Winfield. The Willow Island plant is only a few years younger.
China is opening a new coal-fired plant every week.
1. They buy coal.
2. They do not have all the environmental restrictions so they pollute more than US plants.
..........which is a big argument for clean coal plants. Someone will mine the coal, someone will burn the coal, why not make sure both are done in a way that mitigates the environmental impacts and helps local natural resource based economies too?
In general, I think this idea is a blind spot on part of many in the environmental movement. Pushing the ecological damage to another part of the world to make you feel better about your own home isn't always a positive for the planet as a whole.
..........which is a big argument for clean coal plants. Someone will mine the coal, someone will burn the coal, why not make sure both are done in a way that mitigates the environmental impacts and helps local natural resource based economies too?
In general, I think this idea is a blind spot on part of many in the environmental movement. Pushing the ecological damage to another part of the world to make you feel better about your own home isn't always a positive for the planet as a whole.
I'm not sure we should be controlling who a mining company can sell coal to. If a customer is in China, and the company wants to sell and ship the coal, I don't know why the government should prevent that.
Fundamentally, coal sales to electrical generating plants will continue to decline as coal fired plants reach their end of life and are shut down. No new ones are being built in the US. Shipping costs will eventually cause the Chinese to mine more coal to meet their own demand.
I'm not sure we should be controlling who a mining company can sell coal to. If a customer is in China, and the company wants to sell and ship the coal, I don't know why the government should prevent that.
Fundamentally, coal sales to electrical generating plants will continue to decline as coal fired plants reach their end of life and are shut down. No new ones are being built in the US. Shipping costs will eventually cause the Chinese to mine more coal to meet their own demand.
I agree, but regulations that shut down or make manufacturing more clean coal power plants impossible are a form of controlling where coal will be sold, you effectively destroy the US market through overregulation, and it is intentional.
Again, not politics, but from an environmental or economic point of view does this make any sense at all? Rather than being able to use a natural resource from your own back yard (reducing transportation carbon footprint) to produce cheaper power for your own people (low transportation cost, local resource, coal burns hot) and create jobs in the process (mining the coal, running the plant) you manipulate the market to have the coal sold to China? I guess you keep some of the jobs, but lose the resource for your own use and benefit because of OUR government's regulations, not the free market.
I would like politicians that don't increase energy costs for residents sitting on top of centuries worth of power generating fuel for the nebulous benefit of "greener world" and actual benefit of "cheaper power for China."
We do need better politicians. The ones we have are not representing the needs of the citizens, nor are they doing things that will help our state.
You won't get tech companies to come here by passing laws giving the legislature policy control over education, banning virtually all abortions, and passing a "religious freedom" bill. These companies tend to have young, college educated employees, and those employees don't want to live under those conditions. The employees would quit and move somewhere else since their skills are so portable.
We need large investments in our schools, but it won't matter how many millions are thrown at education if we keep paying our teachers so little and have politicians interfering with the Department of Education. The teachers (and public employees) need to have cost of living adjustments built into their pay schedules instead of having the legislature have to pass a bill every time they get a raise.
The income tax cut was incredibly stupid. The state has a huge funding problem with the PEIA. Remember, this is the health care plan for the state's teachers. Remember the underpaid teachers? Yeah, those people. Now we have legislators threatening to take health care coverage away from their spouses. That's n o way to get teachers to stay.
Whether you like it or not, this state has a lot of poor people. They need services from the government. Those same people keep voting for politicians that tell them right up front that they want to cut entitlement programs. That's just downright stupid. People that get Medicaid and WIC are voting for candidates that want to do away with those programs.
Investment in broadband can be a big plus. In recent years, public investment has built a fiber optic network in South Charleston and one is being built in Huntington. Any service provider can lease the use of those networks with having to invest in cabling entire communities. Done that way, competing companies can offer Internet, phone, and TV services in each community. Public investment in these networks will help attract businesses because the business will also have access to the networks, and their employees will have access choices like they have where they live now.
Yes, Bob Bird got a lot of federal spending for WV. Manchin has done a little. He could do so much more. He should have insisted on 3 full time, full size military bases in WV in exchange for his vote to create the Space Force. Instead, we got nothing.
Somebody mentioned regulations. We need regulations. Regulations are written in blood. Remember that. We don't write rules about roof in coal mines because it sounds nice. We write them because somebody got killed when a roof collapsed. Without the rules, mine companies would further endanger miners' lives. We can read the evidence of this on the headstones of the miners. While 400,000 people were dealing when a chemical spill into their water supply, Senator Capito voted to lower water quality standards. Yet, people reelected her. How stupid can people get. Before regulations are lowered or eliminated, we need to first look at why that regulation was put in place.
Let's talk about coal. Coal will continue to decline. There is nothing anybody can do about that. It won't completely disappear because it is needed to make steel, but it will continue to decline in the electric generating market. That is because it is very expensive to build a coal fired power plant. Nobody is doing that. A gas fired plant is cheaper to build and cheaper to operate. Other sources of electricity are gaining in popularity. Instead of facing reality, the legislature passed a bill requiring companies to operate plants they want to shut down. That costs each of us more money. The legislature has done nothing to deal with the fact that coal revenue and employment will continue to decline.
Instead, some politician makes a speech and says he's pro-life and pro gun. Everybody goes and votes for him even though he's promised to vote against the best interests of the state and the people. It's not going to get any better until people start paying attention to how their politicians actually address the best interests of their constituents. So far, I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
Yes, Bob Byrd would have gotten st least one major military base in West Virginia in return for his vote to create the Space Force.
One thing that West Virginia lacks that many relatively underdeveloped states have used to pull themselves up the economic rankings is a major military presence within the state.
Yes, Bob Byrd would have gotten st least one major military base in West Virginia in return for his vote to create the Space Force.
One thing that West Virginia lacks that many relatively underdeveloped states have used to pull themselves up the economic rankings is a major military presence within the state.
That would be a great move. With so much open space across WV, it would be great for bases, test sites, storage, etc.
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