King Coal, Dethroned, and Its Aftermath....good read
- Thread starter RichardPeterJohnson
- Start date
I agree it was a good read. Part of what concerns me is the feeling of "get on board or get left behind" for the betterment of the world. There is not a real transition plan, fault of the state's elected representatives, but also a secondary effect of the war on coal. From a Federal level they are basically just killing or willing to kill an entire state and economy. I still put the onus on WV's leadership to not see this coming and not have diversification plans in place. They went all in and left a state with zero outs.
That is my feeling as well. There is some diversification, but not a lot. I do fault the current WV leadership for not seeing the train coming down the tracks and start working on bringing more into the state.
Even without the "war on coal", it isn't a sustainable industry and never really has been. Many once booming areas are ghost towns now and have been for decades. They mine an area until it is no longer economically feasible and then shut down and move on. It was foolish to not recognize that happening to the state as a whole at some point.
The war on coal is a myth. While there may be some environmental regs that rub people the wrong way, the coal industry has been on a steady decline for 30 years-at least. There have been a combo of things which have resulted in this decline of coal jobs-improved mechanization and alternative fuel option being the main culprits. WV's leaders have had tunnel vision and the chickens have come home to roost. Sad to see. My old hometown's biggest employers are now the school system, and county and state govt.
What is frustrating to me is here in east TN, tourism is huge. people flock here for the fall colors, camping and other outdoor activities. As a result, there are tourist businesses that have sprung up and are booming-amusement parks, restaurants, golf courses, race tracks, hotels.....and this place doesn't have anything on WV when it comes to beauty. If Myrtle Beach is the redneck riveria, Gatlinburg/pigeon forge is redneck aspen. Not sure how all this tourism came about-Im sure the Great Smoky Mountain National Park has helped. But again, it has nothing on WV.
You got that right about Pigeon Forge. JFC, I was there a couple of years ago. That place is basically like the strip at Myrtle. Hilarious to see what was walking around.
I'm happy for the people that were able to use the coal jobs to provide for their families ... but altogether the coal industry has really been no friend to WV. Poisoning the air and water, removing mountaintops, hiring assassins to kill mine workers, being willingly lax on safety regs and getting our workers killed ... and so on and so on.
Should have been a "war on coal" a long time ago for everything they've done to the people, environment and landscape of this state?
Raped us and left us lying naked in the alley.
The problem is that with the mountain top removal, tourism isn't even any kind of option in those areas.
I was flying from Huntington to Beckley about a year ago. I decided to drop down to about 3k ft to get a good look at the coal fields from the air. It just saddened me about how ugly it made the area look. I can only imagine it from the ground but what I saw while airborne was a travesty.
start to finish plan for about $7500-9500 depending on your aptitude. I would make the money available before you start so you can blast through it. It makes it quicker than if you half *** it a flight a month. I went everyday after work + weekends and was able to finish out in 29 days. Instrument took me a couple of months though. A lot more studying involved.
That is not true at all. Look no further than university town center in morgantown where strip mining has turned directly into tourism. Look at King Coal Highway in Mingo county. There are numerous cases of strip mining being used for tourism and other post mining land uses.
If you look at areas that are in later stages of reclamation it is a different story. The economic damage that the epa has done to the industry is going to hurt the reclamation process as well.
I have friends that got their licenses long ago. I'm pretty familiar with the costs, it's just carving out that money to be used for just that. I used to work with some guys that had a small fleet of private planes that they rented out and one was an instructor. He told me that he would teach me and wave the instructor fees, but that was when I was just starting out, low salary, mountain of student loans to repay, newly married, etc. Just couldn't do it.
Fast forward 15 years and a divorce hit the finances hard, lol, but I'm in a position to do things now, sorta. Good salary, but in a pretty volatile field so could be out looking at just about any time. Predominantly debt free, but a laundry list of home improvement projects to get to .... blah blah blah. I was high in the running for a very good job that would be really stable and would have felt much more comfortable spending on luxury pursuits had I gotten it, but alas, I did not.
Need to just do it though, while I still can. Not getting any younger, and kidneys certainly aren't getting any better.
F*ck Coal, it's over, we need to legalize recreational weed, you see the tax revenue from that? With our recreation activities we could be the Colorado of the East. Be smart to do it now and be the first State around so you could get even more revenue.
You and Dog flying planes....Scary thought. The guy who installed our swimming pool flies and has built three planes. His latest is one that is a short takeoff type as he wanted to fly in and out of his property instead of using the Martinsburg airport. He has offered to take me up for a spin several times....that will never happen. I don't trust small planes.
I actually agree with you. I have advocated this position many times on this board. Weed is far and away the largest cash crop in the state.
That's not true. It's the reclaimed mines and mining roads that are all linked together to form the Hatfield/McCoy ATV trail system that is providing much of the adventure tourism in the southern coal counties. It's still pretty up on top of those hills when you can't see an active mountaintop mine of which there are fewer and fewer. I've never been on the trail system but I doubt that you would see much or any active mines.
Man, you are so right...going back home and seeing the desolation that was once a thriving community really sucks. It's hard to believe Richwood doesn't even have a grocery store...sad.
Was Richwood a big coal area? Spent much of my childhood on my grandparents small farm near Maidsville. Maidsville had several businesses, couple beer gardens, garages, a couple stores. It is now a desolate dump. Hell, I thought I was living in the Mesa country of the west thanks to the cliffs and arroyos created by the mess left behind by strip mining. No reclamation back in those days. And where else could a kid go sled riding down slate dumps in the summer? And where else could you find orange colored pools of water?