Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and President Barack Obama on West Virginia's future

by: Clem Guttata

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 10:13:27 AM EST

Several folks have posted about the exchange between Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Pres. Obama and the GOP retreat last week (h/t JB). If you haven't watched the video, here it is.

Here's how I look at this exchange. The basic assumption in Capito's question is in this part:

I represent the state of West Virginia. We're resource rich. We have a lot of coal and a lot of natural gas.

Towards the end of his response President Obama reminds her that's not the full picture.

So what I want to do is with West Virginia to figure out how we can seize that future. But to do that, that means there's going to have to be some transition. ... what does that industry look like in the next hundred years?

How would you answer the question for West Virginia--what does coal mining look like in the next 100 years?

The first thing I think about is, 100 years from now--probably just 50 years from now--there's not going to any coal mining to speak of going on in West Virginia--all the coal will be gone. Just looking out 30 years from now, there's a whole lot less coal mining than today. So, what about 20... or 10 years from today?

This is the twilight of coal wealth for West Virginia... its heyday is in the past... we're in the final lap. The President is responding to Capito--West Virginia doesn't have 100 years worth of coal--and reminds us all we need to do even more to prepare for what comes next.

Stripped to its essence, it's the most pressing question I take away from the Q&A between Capito and Obama.

To prepare for the next 100 years: what economic development do we as a state want to promote that is not coal-related?