Diversify?

Squeaky wheel editorializing (4.00 / 3)

Apparently the coal operators have the State Gerbil so well trained to run on its same squeaky old wheel that it can't even see outside the cage.

How can its editors ignore the fact that despite WV's being the fourth most resource-rich state in the country, our state's citizens (on average) have never managed to rise above the bottom rungs of the U.S. economy?

Mingo County is extracting coal tonnage-per-man-hour at record rates, yet its school district has been seized by the state twice due to underfunding. Mingo County's literacy rate is one of the lowest of all counties in the state, and its child poverty rate remains among the worst in the nation!

If the Gerbil's editors were intellectually honest, they'd start admitting that WV's coalpatch economy actually drags down the rest of the state. After all, studies have consistently shown for years that the coal industry is a net drag on the state, with the most recent research revealing that coal costs WV up to five times more than it plugs back into our economy!

So even though above referenced diatribe starts out in the right direction (diversity), in the end the Gerbil reverts back to squeaking that same old wheel, only louder. Time to hang a name on that exercise wheel: FUTILITY

What I suggest is that in the future if you any in the West Virginia media chooses to use the word "diversity" and coal in the same diatribe, they may want to consider pushing the proper taxation and regulation of the coal industry so that more subsidies can be plugged into forward-thinking manufacturing like solar, wind, geothermal and other less infrastructure-robbing fuels.

I mean C'MON! Even the oil-soaked Saudi-states have started diversifying into alternative energy strategies, for gosh-sakes!

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by: One Citizen @ Wed May 05, 2010 at 00:13:37 AM UTC

Legalize Coal=Legalize Poverty (4.00 / 1)

Last time I was in Williamson I saw a sign, a large one in the center of town that stated "Legalize Coal" and it was plastered on the side of a tavern I think.  As soon as I saw this I thought how desperate these folks must be to proclaim such nonsense.  The problem is that mining coal irresponsibly IS LEGAL.  Blowing up mountains, burying streams, and bancrupting towns and counties IS LEGAL today. WTF!

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by: JBdem4usa @ Wed May 05, 2010 at 13:54:29 PM UTC