| When it comes to economic diversification, the "other" Virginia has been far more aggressive in developing the economy of its coal fields.
Debra McCown writes an encouraging story that provides a potential model for West Virginia (all emphasis mine): Supporters of Coal Point to Regional Investments.
LEBANON, Va. - It was a time when Appalachia, burdened with some of the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the nation, decided to help itself. Twenty years later, government leaders say the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority works.
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The goal was to form a regional agency that could use coal and gas severance taxes to diversify the economy in a region almost solely dependent on coal. Because one day, community leaders realized, the coal would run out.
"We raised the severance tax and put it into economic development ourselves," Quillen said. "I'm just so proud of what this authority does because I think it sends out a signal from Southwest Virginia to other places that we're going to be counted and we're going to help ourselves, and you should come in and help us too."
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA's executive director, said in its 20 years the authority has helped to create 12,000 jobs and draw $2 billion in private investment to the region. Over those two decades the authority has approved $117 million in funding for 208 projects. And thousands of those new jobs, Belcher said, are in industries other than coal - more than offsetting the job losses in the industry during that period.
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As it enters its third decade, VCEDA's latest campaign is aggressively marketing the coalfields as "Virginia's e-region," with millions of dollars dedicated to deploying broadband Internet technology across the region's seven counties.
"Just about every industry now has to have high-speed fiber-optic broadband," Belcher said. "That is a key competitive advantage for the region."
The authority's focus is on high-tech jobs alongside the energy jobs, "both traditional energy jobs and the advanced energy jobs of the 21st century," Belcher said. In other words, he said, the region welcomes green jobs with open arms.
Alpha Natural Resources CEO Michael Quillen, who was VCEDA's first chairman, said the authority had "a pretty rocky start."
The idea wasn't well-received by elected officials who didn't like the thought of a regional authority deciding how money would be distributed among seven counties, three of which produce most of the severance tax revenue...
Some key points so far
1. Diversification provides news jobs as coal mining jobs inevitable disappear.
2. Political independence is necessary for good longer-term planning.
3. Coal mining and other industry can co-exist when resources are specifically allocated and the right structure put in place to make it happen.
But... there are some potential problems:
Kathy Selvage, vice-president of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, a nonprofit group based in Big Stone Gap, Va., said VCEDA's work is not truly diversifying the region's economy; instead, she argues, it is building up the region's dependence on coal.
"Severance money should not be used to promote coal, and that's what they're doing with building a power plant; they're not promoting diversification," Selvage said. "When you're creating a bigger demand for coal, that's not diversifying your economy."
Steve Fisher, a retired professor who lives in Emory, Va., and has taught and written extensively about the region, said VCEDA should be encouraging a model different from traditional economic development. He said severance tax revenue should be used to address the overall needs of the community and develop a locally based, sustainable economy.
The $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant under construction in Wise County is touted as a crowning achievement of VCEDA's work.**
(** Update: Per information in this comment, VCEDA was not responsible for developing the coal plant, that was due to later legislative action...)
Okay, that's definitely a problem. We don't need any more coal-fired power plants in this area. That's not diversification I can believe in. The rest of their projects sound a lot better: call centers, R&D centers, and other office space.
Belcher said. "They went from that county probably having the least-developable property all over the state to having maybe the most property."
Belcher said VCEDA has "allowed a tremendous amount of economic development to happen in the area that would not have happened otherwise."
"If you look around the region at pretty much any of the major economic development projects that have occurred over the past 20 years there has been some VCEDA funding or some role that VCEDA has played," he said.
So another important lesson: get the charter right for diversification in economic development, not more coal-centric economic development.
"The cap and trade and climate change issue is vindication for why this group is here," said Tommy Hudson, president of the Virginia Coal Association and vice-chairman of VCEDA's executive advisory board.
"We all knew coal would be here for a finite time and we'd have to have the industries to replace it," Hudson said. "Coal might be here for less time because of climate change, and that makes our work and the work of VCEDA more important."
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"You make such a tremendous difference here," Ford Quillen said. "There's no more moral or better thing to do than to provide jobs for your people."
There is no time like the present to responsibly end Mountain Top Removal and actively work to diversify the West Virginia economy. Twenty years ago the Virginia legislature had the vision to start the process for Virginia coal fields. Their foresight is paying major dividends today.
When will the our legislature start preparing West Virginia for a future beyond coal? |
