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OPINIONS
Tom Miller: Differences over coal mining will be hard to bridge
This state's economy has been tied to extractive minerals in general and coal mining in particular for generations, spawning periodic clashes between those who consider it the key to the state's economic stability and those who consider it a curse.
The latest salvos in this conflict came in rapid-fire fashion last week. First there was news of a research paper which concluded coal mining costs five times as much in early deaths to the people who live near and work in the mines as it generates for the economy in terms of jobs, taxes and other benefits.
A West Virginia University researcher co-authored this study that concluded the coal industry generates $8 billion of economic benefits while costing at least $42 billion in premature deaths attributable to coal mining activity -- based on the so-called "value of statistical life" per fatality. The article appears in the latest issue of a journal from the U. S. Public Health Service and suggests that continued reliance on the coal industry is not in the best public interests for residents of Appalachia.
Two days later, more than 30 people were arrested during demonstrations at a mountaintop-removal coal mining site in Raleigh County. Movie actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen were among the more notable individuals charged with obstructing officers and impeding traffic when they sat down in the middle of W.Va. Route 3 outside Massey Energy's Goals Goal preparation plant.
They were prevented from actually getting into the plant grounds by hundreds of coal miners, family members and industry supporters who blocked their way. Local police are credited with preventing what could have been a far more serious confrontation.
Hansen and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship wanted to debate the relative merits of global warming vs. mountaintop mining but couldn't agree on a time and place. Hansen had agreed to a Wednesday debate in Beckley sponsored by West Virginia Public Broadcasting while Blankenship accepted a rival offer from WOWK-TV for a 7 p.m. live debate on Thursday.
None of this made any significant dent in the wide differences of opinion about whether the continued dependence on coal as an energy source is good or bad. Certainly Gov. Joe Manchin deftly displayed his political balancing act by claiming that he's an " "environmentalist but not an obstructionist."
Hansen and others dedicated to protecting the environment say they'll continue to press their cause in hopes that President Obama's administration will ban mountaintop removal mining. And even members of Sen. Robert C. Byrd's staff visited mountaintop mining sites prior to last week's events to talk privately with leaders on both sides of this issue.
But any satisfactory resolution of this dispute in our lifetime seems unlikely and can probably be summarized best in the words of the wise old Indian years ago who described the buildup to an expected violent storm that never materialized as "lots of thunder, no rain". . .
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Unemployment in West Virginia has now reached its highest level in 13 years. Last month's total of 67,700 people out of work is the most since more than 70,000 workers were without jobs in February of 1996. But because there are more workers now -- 796,000 compared to 788,500 in January of 1997 -- last month's rate of 8.5 percent is the highest since 8.6 percent in January of 1997 when only 67,600 workers were idle.
It's still a far cry, though, from the tough times 25 years ago when nearly one of every five West Virginia workers had no job and double-digit rates of unemployment persisted for nearly six years (1982-1988).
The unemployment rate in this state dipped to an unprecedented 3.6 percent just nine months ago in August of 2008 when only 29,000 people of the state workforce of 803,900 were unemployed but it has been steadily climbing ever since.
That's why the Legislature's action to increase the revenue for the unemployment compensation trust fund earlier this month was so timely and why government officials are hoping the economic downturn will bottom out soon before the jobless numbers return to double digit numbers again.
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Because of some concern about rosy promises of significant economic development at Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center, current state law requires the Nitro "racino" to open a resort hotel by August of 2010 or pay a $2.5 million annual penalty to the state of West Virginia. Ground was broken for a scaled-back 150-room hotel last week with a promise to meet that deadline.
When Kanawha County voters approved the addition of table games to the greyhound racetrack operation, the owners promised 1,000 new jobs, a 250-room hotel, a conference center and an entertainment complex. The score so far is about 300 new jobs which the owners insist brings the overall employment figure "close" to 1,000. There is no announced timetable for the conference center and entertainment complex so, obviously, those earlier concerns were justified.
Tom Miller is a retired state government reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. He is a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch opinion page.
