Wait a sec, I thought you were and old retired guy, presumably with just a wife in the house. What are you doing with a 5 BR house? Get a condo and save $100 or more per month.
But....but...but.....Trump promised coal country jobs would return
- Thread starter MountaineerWV
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Wait a sec, I thought you were and old retired guy, presumably with just a wife in the house. What are you doing with a 5 BR house? Get a condo and save $100 or more per month.
I'm not retired (I am old...59) but except for my 24 year old Daughter who's living with me for now with her 5 year old son (My Grandson) because she Married a worthless bum...my Wife and I are enjoying the freedom of not having any more of my 7 kids around Op2.
They've all grown up and moved away, in some cases starting their own Families, in other cases moved out of town (Seattle, Arkansas, Southern Georgia) so we're officially empty nesters.
I still like my house, and the extra room does come in handy when relatives visit or the Grandkids (4) visit. But at some point we'll either sell it, or simply rent it out and get something smaller. Maybe in five or more years when I officially hang 'em up and take up permanent residence on Blue lot?[winking]
Yes, I think there are only 2, maybe 3. The New being one of them. And that was kind of my point, whatever environmental damage is caused by dams, it has already been done so why not retrofit and produce hyroelectric power. I'm only aware of the one that's relatively easy to do, and maybe it's the only one, but I find that really hard to believe.
And, whatever damage has been done to Ned Beatty's *** has already been done as well. You can't change the past, just take advantage of what has been done.
Hydro is fine but not practical for a lot of energy. Solar and wind is good but we would need a lot of infrastructure to move that to the coal fields.
I think they lower it in winter so it can hold the spring thaw and rains.
Coal Man. burn baby burn!!!!!!
Coal is cool
Coal is cheap!
Coal is clean (now)
Coal is complete (perfect energy fuel)
Coal is crazy (not to use)
Coal is West Virginia!
That makes sense, and I have thought of that, but it seems you could keep it at a sustainable level and then lower it when the thaw is expected. It could be calculated based on how much precipitation we've gotten and then what the runoff would be and drain it at different levels to make room for what's expected.
It would certainly be more complicated than just "drain it in November" and wait, but it doesn't seem like it would be too hard. There's no reason to do it now because we aren't producing electricity, but if we were to start it seems like the effort would be worth it.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/29/coal-towns-see-hope-for-comeback-as-trump-ends-war.html
Coal towns see hope for comeback as Trump ends 'war'
MADISON, W.Va. – In West Virginia’s bucolic Boone County, there are scattered reminders everywhere of better days – a tattered American flag, dusty swing sets and metal chimes blowing in the wind.
A decade ago, this coal community was thriving. It led the nation in mining jobs, had a vibrant economy and was giving back to its people.
Then a wave of environmental regulations hit, along with an overall shift toward other forms of energy. Aimed at cutting out coal in favor of wind and solar, the changes had devastating effects on towns built around the industry.
SLIDESHOW: WEST VIRGINIA TOWNS SEEK COMEBACK
“It’s been heartbreaking,” Kris Mitchell, director at Boone County Community and Economic Development Corp., told Fox News. “It impacted every level.”
But communities like Boone are seeing new hope amid a renewed effort in Washington to peel back red tape and invest once again in coal.
"My administration is putting an end to the war on coal," President Trump said Tuesday as he signed an executive order aimed at rolling back Obama-era regulations.
MINE SAFETY BILLS FIRE UP TENSIONS IN COAL COUNTRY
“We’re optimistic and hopeful,” Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told Fox News ahead of the announcement.
Hamilton, who started in the industry as a coal miner straight out of high school, said he’s seen renewed confidence and interest in West Virginia coal from the investment community. Since November, there’s been an uptick in pricing levels and growth in certain coal operations that he largely attributes to Trump.
After eight years of regulations, “we have to hang our hope on President Trump,” Hamilton said.
The future of the industry remains unclear. Democrats ripped Trump's executive order as bad for the environment and claimed it would not actually bring coal jobs back.
Indeed, while regulations have hurt the coal sector, experts say the industry's biggest hurdle is the abundance of cheap natural gas.
Gas prices have fallen, making it much more attractive than coal. Another problem is technology. As coal companies have gotten more efficient at extracting coal, fewer workers are needed. Coal’s presence in America’s power market has fallen to 32 percent from about 50 percent a decade ago.
The bottom line, experts say, is that even though the Obama administration did all it could to kill coal, it wasn’t those policies alone that choked the life from a once-vibrant industry.
Still, Trump's bid to ease regulations is boosting morale, giving coal-mining communities across Appalachia a shot at rebuilding.
“Everyone here is tied to coal,” Mitchell told Fox News. “It’s in your family. It’s in your blood.”
Mitchell grew up in Boone. Her father, now retired, was a coal miner. Her brother was in the industry. One grandfather worked on the railroad while the other worked in a deep mine.
Once the coal jobs started to dry up, employment plummeted and struggling workers were forced to flee the only place they had called home.
Today, there are boarded-up houses, burned-down lots and displays of deep decay.
But there are signs of hope.
The day after Trump’s White House win, coal stock prices soared and many coal communities celebrated what they saw as a comeback.
Hamilton says the Trump administration, coupled with a state legislature that has “demonstrated its interest in seeing coal remain a centerpiece of our state’s economy,” has set the stage for an “all-out attempt” to take advantage of this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform West Virginia into the nation’s capital for coal and energy.”
“It’s a good first step,” West Virginia Del. Rupie Phillips told Fox News. He added that the success of coal is dependent on Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs. That, in turn, he says will work toward driving a real coal revival.
U.S. coal production in 2016 hit its lowest level since 1978. The industry has been pummeled over the past eight years, and between 2011 and 2016, it lost about 60,000 jobs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in Boone is down a staggering 81 percent over the past five years.
So can coal come back? In an age of not just surging natural gas production but developments in renewables like wind and solar, the big challenge is to find a way to become the cheapest and best product for the job.
Robert Murray, owner of the world’s largest private coal company, recently told The Columbus Dispatch that Trump’s victory lap might be a bit premature.
“Can the coal industry be brought back?” Murray asked. “The answer is, I’ve suggested to President Trump that he temper his expectations.”
Learning from painful lessons of the past, the plan forward for Boone – like for most of West Virginia – is to diversify.
There are big pushes for infrastructure reform and a strong coalition working to rebrand the region as a tourist destination.
“Tourism is a supplement,” Mitchell said.
Coal, though, will always have a home in Boone County.
Mitchell added, “We will always back coal here because it will always be a part of us. No one will ever give up on coal.”
Coal towns see hope for comeback as Trump ends 'war'
MADISON, W.Va. – In West Virginia’s bucolic Boone County, there are scattered reminders everywhere of better days – a tattered American flag, dusty swing sets and metal chimes blowing in the wind.
A decade ago, this coal community was thriving. It led the nation in mining jobs, had a vibrant economy and was giving back to its people.
Then a wave of environmental regulations hit, along with an overall shift toward other forms of energy. Aimed at cutting out coal in favor of wind and solar, the changes had devastating effects on towns built around the industry.
SLIDESHOW: WEST VIRGINIA TOWNS SEEK COMEBACK
“It’s been heartbreaking,” Kris Mitchell, director at Boone County Community and Economic Development Corp., told Fox News. “It impacted every level.”
But communities like Boone are seeing new hope amid a renewed effort in Washington to peel back red tape and invest once again in coal.
"My administration is putting an end to the war on coal," President Trump said Tuesday as he signed an executive order aimed at rolling back Obama-era regulations.
MINE SAFETY BILLS FIRE UP TENSIONS IN COAL COUNTRY
“We’re optimistic and hopeful,” Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told Fox News ahead of the announcement.
Hamilton, who started in the industry as a coal miner straight out of high school, said he’s seen renewed confidence and interest in West Virginia coal from the investment community. Since November, there’s been an uptick in pricing levels and growth in certain coal operations that he largely attributes to Trump.
After eight years of regulations, “we have to hang our hope on President Trump,” Hamilton said.
The future of the industry remains unclear. Democrats ripped Trump's executive order as bad for the environment and claimed it would not actually bring coal jobs back.
Indeed, while regulations have hurt the coal sector, experts say the industry's biggest hurdle is the abundance of cheap natural gas.
Gas prices have fallen, making it much more attractive than coal. Another problem is technology. As coal companies have gotten more efficient at extracting coal, fewer workers are needed. Coal’s presence in America’s power market has fallen to 32 percent from about 50 percent a decade ago.
The bottom line, experts say, is that even though the Obama administration did all it could to kill coal, it wasn’t those policies alone that choked the life from a once-vibrant industry.
Still, Trump's bid to ease regulations is boosting morale, giving coal-mining communities across Appalachia a shot at rebuilding.
“Everyone here is tied to coal,” Mitchell told Fox News. “It’s in your family. It’s in your blood.”
Mitchell grew up in Boone. Her father, now retired, was a coal miner. Her brother was in the industry. One grandfather worked on the railroad while the other worked in a deep mine.
Once the coal jobs started to dry up, employment plummeted and struggling workers were forced to flee the only place they had called home.
Today, there are boarded-up houses, burned-down lots and displays of deep decay.
But there are signs of hope.
The day after Trump’s White House win, coal stock prices soared and many coal communities celebrated what they saw as a comeback.
Hamilton says the Trump administration, coupled with a state legislature that has “demonstrated its interest in seeing coal remain a centerpiece of our state’s economy,” has set the stage for an “all-out attempt” to take advantage of this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform West Virginia into the nation’s capital for coal and energy.”
“It’s a good first step,” West Virginia Del. Rupie Phillips told Fox News. He added that the success of coal is dependent on Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs. That, in turn, he says will work toward driving a real coal revival.
U.S. coal production in 2016 hit its lowest level since 1978. The industry has been pummeled over the past eight years, and between 2011 and 2016, it lost about 60,000 jobs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in Boone is down a staggering 81 percent over the past five years.
So can coal come back? In an age of not just surging natural gas production but developments in renewables like wind and solar, the big challenge is to find a way to become the cheapest and best product for the job.
Robert Murray, owner of the world’s largest private coal company, recently told The Columbus Dispatch that Trump’s victory lap might be a bit premature.
“Can the coal industry be brought back?” Murray asked. “The answer is, I’ve suggested to President Trump that he temper his expectations.”
Learning from painful lessons of the past, the plan forward for Boone – like for most of West Virginia – is to diversify.
There are big pushes for infrastructure reform and a strong coalition working to rebrand the region as a tourist destination.
“Tourism is a supplement,” Mitchell said.
Coal, though, will always have a home in Boone County.
Mitchell added, “We will always back coal here because it will always be a part of us. No one will ever give up on coal.”
Optimism? Screw optimism......I want to see JOBS! I want to see people back to WORK! I want to see improving infrastructure! I don't want to see people "talk" about "optimism" and "potential" jobs.
lol...
any rational person would agree with you...
good thing Hilliary didn't win...
Yeah....who has it worse off? Hillary? Or the coal miners? Hmm.......
.....Hillary is a multi-millionaire with a SWEET government retirement package with excellent health care and benefits.......coal miners are unemployed, losing their homes, local communities drying up, losing benefits from the social program cuts from Trump........
Yeah, Hillary "lost" in this one.......[thumbsup]
And the left cheered it on further displaying their lack of understanding of the interconnection within economics. A complete failure to understand when the major economic driver in a state is killed, everything from teachers to contractors, to business owners, to car dealerships, to retail is impacted. Now, people all over the state are impacted and still, you have morons not wanting coal to come back. It defies logic.
Funny you bring up teachers being hurt.....yet you want to destroy their union, and establish charter schools that would destroy specific public schools. Now that is funny!
No rebuttal? What I said was 100% accurate. I didn't vote for her. I didn't support her. But the miners are still struggling.....and she is not. Trump is cutting back on some social programs that help out of work miners and their struggling communities........keep ducking and dodging.
Maybe it's because it destroys other businesses.....hmmmmm....
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/regional/adirondack.htm
Do you really think charter schools are going to happen in rural America? Good lord.Funny you bring up teachers being hurt.....yet you want to destroy their union, and establish charter schools that would destroy specific public schools. Now that is funny!
Really? So his budget won't cut funding to any program that would assist a miner who is unemployed? [roll]
Do some research. It's coming. Not in the form that you will see in urban areas, but an "online" version of charter schools WILL be next. Then teachers are out of work. But government regulations on education is drastically different than government regulation on mining that put these miners out of work. Teachers.....ahhh....they can go work at WalMart.
Here is the research that was done on these online charter schools....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ol-for-an-entire-year/?utm_term=.cc8071307539
- Students in online charters lost an average of about 72 days of learning in reading.
- Students in online charters lost 180 days of learning in math during the course of a 180-day school year. Yes, you read that right. As my colleague Lyndsey Layton wrote in this story about the study, it’s as if the students did not attend school at all when it comes to math.
- The average student in an online charter had lower reading scores than students in traditional schools everywhere except Wisconsin and Georgia, and had lower math scores everywhere except in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
I don't know that coal was even the major economic driver in the state anymore. I don't recall where I saw it and don't feel like looking it up anymore, but in a state of $1.8M people, I think less than 30k were employed by coal. It might have been lower than that.
Hell, I just drove down Rt. 50 towards Parkersburg last night and there is natural gas construction going on all over the place. Regulations didn't kill WV, the economy shifted towards natural gas and people haven't adapted or are unwilling to learn the new skills. There was one structure that looked like it might end up being a NG power plant, but I couldn't tell for sure based on what was built so far. I see at least a dozen Antero Resource trucks every day. At least.
I'm sure there are other federal programs that help with job redevelopment in the coalfields but he wants to cut the Appalachian Regional Commission which provides similar assistance.
https://www.arc.gov/images/appregion/fact_sheets/ARCatWork3-2017/ARC_at_Work_3-2017.pdf
Lol, man you show yourself in the one quote, wife do all your bills! I bet you are a manly man takes of everything, pffffft.
Depends on where you live in WV...my brother, as well as neighbors on both sides of me, work in the mines.
If coal is going to be "viable" as a cheap alternative energy fuel for us, it's best promise doing so is by use of "clean coal technology".
But will it work, does it work?
A fair and balanced debate offered here for the OT board to decide for yourselves.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-clean-coal-technology-have-a-future-1416779351
But will it work, does it work?
A fair and balanced debate offered here for the OT board to decide for yourselves.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-clean-coal-technology-have-a-future-1416779351