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Editorial - The ‘war on coal’ is a myth

Published: Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Updated: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 02:09

The ‘war on coal.’

Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

Chances are, anyone who has spent time in Appalachia in the past year is familiar with this moniker.

Throughout West Virginia and several of its neighboring states, billboards, television advertisements and bumper stickers warn of this ongoing economic conflict. The coal belt, which stretches through parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania, has been ominously redubbed "Obama’s No Job Zone."

Based on these advertising campaigns, which are spearheaded by coal companies and the politicians they support, it would seem the current president and his party are hell-bent on destroying the region’s coal industry, along with the livelihood of the thousands who depend on it.

Is this an accurate representation of the Democratic Party’s stance on the coal industry? Hardly.

A simple look at the facts regarding the Obama Administration’s approach to the this issue clearly shows that the so-called war on coal is nothing more than a scare tactic being employed by the coal industry with the goal of deliberately misleading the public.

In fact, recent data released by WorkForce West Virginia reveals the number of coal jobs in West Virginia has actually risen since Obama took office, with this year’s tally achieving a two-decade high. As is often the case, reality is far-removed from the rhetoric dominating our political discourse on this issue.

Many of the claims surrounding this so-called war are centered on the Environmental Protection Agency and the supposed job-killing regulations it has introduced over the past several years. Although the EPA has implemented new regulations, many of them are designed to decrease the release of poisonous chemicals, such as mercury, into the environment, and none of them are intended to "kill jobs." Several of the most controversial regulations have not even been implemented, and may never be. Others only apply to coal plants constructed in the future.

As is illustrated by the fact that the industry continues to grow, these regulations do not represent a mortal threat to King Coal.

This is simply another case of intentionally misleading political advertising. This issue highlights the importance of voters actively looking into the facts behind the claims made by politicians. Unfortunately, this certainly will not be the only case of factually dubious political advertising campaigns in this year’s election.

As citizens, we must ensure these campaigns do not succeed in deciding our elections based on false wedge issues, such as a non-existent war on coal.

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2 comments

Bill
Tue Sep 4 2012 10:53
Industry growth? Look at the Workforce WV projections for the industry - abysmal. Further, look at the WV OMHS&T statistics on production during the same period that are cited for a 7.4% growth in jobs and you see a 16% decrease in production! Additionally, you see an enormous increase in employment of ind.contractors in the industry over the same period. What are all of these thousands of new employees & ind. contractors doing, when production is way down? Can anyone say "retrofitting" to satisfy EPA mandates? Regardless, more jobs + less production = higher energy costs for all!
Anonymous
Tue Sep 4 2012 07:09
The war on coal is politicians and coal companies simply upset that their bottom lines have to take a hit so we can actually drink our water near the coal fields. The regulations are only a burden to the CEO who wanted a 10 million dollar check vs a 5 million. Those are examples numbers and know that those numbers should be much much higher.

The advertising campaigns are based on hopes that the general public in WV, who often lack political understanding and knowledge as a whole, will just "take it for what it sounds like". The verdict, success.

West Virginia has bought into the notion and is almost completely against Obama. This issue will ruin our state if we do not diversify. I understand our state is coal and coal only, but let me tell you something, coal is a dying technology. Coal is dirty, hard to get to, and expensive to mine compared to Natural Gas.

Natural Gas is the future stop gap until we find a means off of coal and the longer we wait to transition away from "coal and coal only", the more it will hurt.





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