The necessary move away from fossil fuels will damage – no, destroy – a major part of the West Virginia economy as it exists today. That is a simple fact.
Okay, fine, coal mining is now 2% of the employment in the state. But it is also worth $2 billion in wages, in a state that is not really well known for lots of well-paying jobs.
And okay, of course, the long-term effects of uncontrolled climate disaster are going to be devastating in WV just like everywhere else.
And yes, coal is dying all on its own, thanks to basic economics, but too slowly to save the planet.
But asking J.Q. Voter to swallow significant short-term pain to avert a worse long-term outcome is … uh … let’s just call it a challenge, shall we?
So yeah, Manchin needs to be able to sell this back home. That’s one of the things that happens in this funny little dance that’s called the legislative process. Or that dirty word, politics.
Has Manchin initiated any efforts to get WV to build or retrofit factories that employ people manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-electric dam components, long term storage batteries, and geothermal/biomass/biofuel technology and components? You know, get on the front side of the looming changes, be a major player in the new energy age?
We do not elect congress-people to do whatever they are commanded to do. They are elected to lead! Which means making decisions for their constituents. Phasing out coal is definitely in the interests of West Virginians!
“The hesitation of Manchin, who comes from a coal state, to endorse the climate provisions in the reconciliation bill comes as progressives indicate that nixing climate provisions would be their line in the sand.”
OT, but yep…getting more and more and more overt by the day. Now Faux News is pretty much literally telling its white Christian nationalist Trump KKKult viewers that if black and brown people are allowed to establish power through the Dems in this country, then their property and belongings and rights will be taken away out of revenge and they will be reduced to poverty and treated like non-citizens as retaliation for all the sins of their forefathers that they had nothing to do with committing…
This has of course always been an implicit part of the narrative, but it is not becoming more and more explicit as part of the propaganda. Be afraid. They are deliberately and systematically driving “half” the country towards inevitable violence by carefully and progressively convincing them it would just be self-defense.
150 years ago farriers were proud, hardworking people also. That doesn’t argue for the utility of their craft to be exercised on a massive scale incompatible with the needs of the nation.
yes - O’Donnell has been to a few rodeos -
the process is going to take time - it is like refurbishing an antique - many steps … many repetitions of steps … let the finish dry, lightly sand, apply another coat …
This is going to continue on into September - no matter what - because of the complexity of the process …
so a huge part of the play is that Manchin can’t be left out in the hot sun for all of the rest of July and all of August and into September - he has to be given some cover … and …
(1.) he has to have something he can sell back home
(2.) other things need to attract attention so the intensity of the attention shifts off of Manchin & does not reach a melting point.
Tip O’neill’s “all politics is local” never applied more
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Bring back Steam Locomotives. Biden loves trains, he’ll be on board, and it’ll give Manchin exactly what he wants.
