Obama promised a "wealth-based green industry", but didn't go into much detail, as far as I could tell. And unfortunately, his "green jobs czar" was run off before he could really get the ball rolling. So its up to us.
I'm old enough to remember when West Virginia used to be a real manufacturing mecca. Think about it. From tools to weapons, from silicon chips to silicone coatings, we've been a source for aluminum, steel, plastics, Teflon, glass, and even Glyclean, used in the processing of high purity electronics & semiconductor processing.
I have a pretty good idea why we DON'T manufacture high grade alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines in WV. Its because of the hyper-toxicity of coal-driven politics. Big Coal simply wants to drive everyone out and turn WV into a giant moon scape. We may as well face it. As long as surface mines are allowed to proliferate and there aren't any Clean Election Laws implemented, Big Coal will be all but encouraged by our politicians to continue that course of action.
Clean election laws aside, EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act laws and OSM strict oversight of SMCRA regs can potentially jam a crowbar into the spokes of surface mine operators.
So to turn things around we need to embrace the fact that manufacturing takes energy, and right now, WV's fossil fuels are the only source of that energy. Since Clem points out that coal production per man hour is on the wane in WV, perhaps dangling the prospect of jacking up local energy needs by luring manufacturers to come to WV is part of the political solution. And all the while, demand that deep mining and strict environmental laws are being enforced.
Guaranteeing more deep mine operations while ramping up local energy consumption so WV can manufacture alternative energy sources can be a winning argument. I just wonder if our state leaders could be persuaded to promote the discounting of energy for the purpose of manufacturing anything "green". Seems to me that discounting energy was one major method he tried to keep those Ravenswood aluminum workers from getting laid off. He certainly tried getting discounted energy when it came to trying to save Blenko from shutting down.
Another wealth-based green industry is cleaning up the over 400 toxic slurry injection sites, the abandoned coal mines, and the countless sludge impoundments strewn across WV. While the WV Brownfields Redevelopment program is doing remediation in northern WV primarly using state funds, it just so happens that Don Blankenship was recently required to spend $10 million of Massey cash for remediation.
As part of the deal, Massey agreed to perform 20 water quality improvement projects along 25 miles of the Little Coal River, and to set aside 200 acres of riverfront property as protected from development. source
Now that's what I call generating shovel-ready 'wealth-based green jobs', because implementation didn't shift the responsibility onto the taxpayer.
Although there is a huge potential for a local green version of FDR's "New Deal" to be found in the remediation of hundreds of thousands of Clean Water Act permit violations, the plain truth is that there isn't the political climate for enforcement. First of all, even though there can't be any greener jobs than those engaged in remediation, neither Joe Manchin nor Randy Huffman are ever going to call them "green". Because that would then call attention to the fact that it's the EPA which has had to step in before scofflaw companies get busted.
Between January 2000 and March 2006, self-reported violations, included in reports Massey filed with regulators, amounted to 60,500 days of violations, or about 28 violations per day, according to court records.
That $20 million went into FED coffers and not WV because in all those violations over all that time, our DEP never busted them. And although $10 million is being spent towards remediation, it should have been a lot more.
It is notable that it was Bush's EPA that struck the deal.
One coal industry analyst previously cited by The Associated Press estimated Massey's potential fines at more than $2.4 billion.
So the thing that really ticks me off about the whole deal is that while the fine seemed large, it was the equivalent of only ten days worth of profit-taking by Massey.
Randy Huffman is even now stalling green jobs from being implemented by blocking the OSM from enforcing SMCRA requirements for restoring blasted-away mountains to their approximate original contour ("AOC").
This could really be a key issue towards changing the political attitude in WV regarding "green jobs". As surface mines are shut down, restoring to AOC has the potential to keep many of those dozer and other heavy equipment operators working. And again, it has the potential of being done on the scofflaw coal operator's dime, not ours.
If only we had a REAL DEP chief.
