Blasting the Appalachian Economy

The Apppalachian people, along with our oldest mountains, are paying the full price for coal

Coal companies are really good at making promises.

The families and communities of Appalachia have, in fact, been the beneficiary of coal company promises for 150 years, with a lasting peace and prosperity always “just over this next dune,” or in the case of Appalachia…just under our next mountain.

Over the last 30 years in Appalachian coal country we have seen more than 1 million acres of some of the most bio-diverse forest in the world destroyed, more than 1200 miles of vital American headwater streams buried and polluted by mountaintop removal mining waste, and over 474 mountains blasted to rubble by mountaintop removal coal mining (check out Appalachian Mountaintop Removal in Google Earth ).

All the while, coal companies have promised up that while there may be some environmental trade-off to mountaintop removal mining – it was SURE to bring great jobs and prosperity to the region. But while many corporate zillionaires from outside the region have profited mightily off of our resources, the Appalachian people have learned that mountaintop removal does the same thing to our economy that it does to our beloved mountains.

In 1995, Harvard economists Jeffery Sachs and Andrew Warner discovered a clear negative relationship between natural resource-base exports, including agriculture, minerals, and fuels, and GDP growth.

They dubbed this phenomenon "The Resource Curse."

Of the 95 countries they investigated, only two achieved a 2% annual GDP growth rate between 1970-1989. A more common occurrence was increased poverty, warfare, and civil strife.

Electric power generation pulled in more than $380 billion in 2005. More than half of that electricity generation came from coal.

If we’ve been mining coal for 150 years...why are the people of Appalachia among the poorest in the country?

Why aren’t we dancing on streets paved with gold? Because, I’ll tell you, coal barons are obsessed with protecting jobs! They’ll gladly tell you, the most important thing in the world is not clean air, clean water, or healthy communities, but...

1. Jobs

2. Jobs!

3. JOBS!!!

4. Air, water, safety, ability to purchase plastic Chinese crap, etc. Nick Rahall (WV-03):

Yes coal provides a livelihood to a vast number of people in my district and in West Virginia. Yes, coal is a friend to West Virginia."

"If an environmental bill is passed [that caps Carbon Dioxide emissions], employment would be cut in half or more, because coal would be seriously hurt or even eliminated.

"The state’s coal industry is providing good jobs, while performing quality reclamation. Unfortunately, the industry and its workers "are threatened by these frivolous lawsuits and continued attacks."... ...Rahall told Raney that his testimony was "right on target."

Unfortunately for them, and for the Appalachian people in need of work, mountaintop removal destroys mining jobs, and requires just a fraction of the labor.

But, the more mountaintop removal we use, the fewer mining jobs we will have. Surface mining (which includes MTR mining), accounts for only 1.2% of jobs in WV and brings in just 2.6% of the state’s total revenues. The counties where surface mining predominates are some of the still poorest counties in the country.

The coal mono-economy in Appalachia will soon come to an end. According to the US Geological Survey, Appalachian coal has just 10-20 years:

"Sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous resources remain in [Appalachian Basin] coal beds and coal zones to last for the next one to two decades at current production."

A full-blown push for clean energy could unleash a jobs bonanza that would make what happened in Silicon Valley in the 1990s look like a bake sale.

With our low energy prices, incredible wind and solar potential, and a work force well versed in mechanized industry, Appalachia is poised to become the center of the new clean energy economy of the 21st century.

Fortunately, for all of the Appalachian people, we have an enormous opportunity to continue to produce energy for the east coast while providing good green jobs. This economic transition from coal to sustainable energy in Appalachia will make our economy strong by raising up our middle class, give the next generation of mountaineers better opportunity, and all the while preserve the oldest mountains in the world – the Appalachians.

These same corporate big wigs who have doomed Appalachia to a century of economic depression are now hilariously touting “clean, carbon neutral coal” (the energy equivalent of dry, alcohol free whiskey), while dumping toxic mining waste into streams, blasting apart the majestic Appalachian Mountains, and feverishly working to build new carbon belching coal-fired power plants all over the United States.

We listened to them for 150 years and have gotten nothing but economic and environmental ruin.

Help us by educating yourself, your elected officials, and the rest of America about the dangers of buying into coal industry’s next shiny distraction, because the folks in Appalachia can tell you - there is no such thing as “clean coal.”