skews13
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2017
- 9,433
- 11,856
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Coal mining is an extraction industry. When an extraction industry ends, every person and community dependent on that industry is left with not just nothing, but less than nothing. They’re left carrying the cost in health care for all the people harmed by companies that saw health and safety regulations as an obstacle to be avoided. They’re left with the environmental consequences of an industry that, by its nature, destroys not just forests and streams but entire mountains and valleys. They’re left with an economy hollowed out by a company that, in its final retreat, leaves behind neither a workforce nor conditions that attract a replacement.
What does a community look like when an extraction industry shuts down? Pick any ghost town in the West. That’s what it looks like.
In 2018, the Sierra Club took a look at the town of Lynch, Kentucky, to see what a mining community was like when the mines left. They found it “hollowed out” and falling to ruin. But Lynch is just one of many such towns. I’ve been there. I’ve seen them. It’s not just that the only industry in town has left, it’s that the industry left behind valleys filled with rubble, streets edged with coal that spilled from passing trucks, a water supply spoiled by acid runoff. I’ve been there. I grew up there. And in my decades as a geologist for a major coal mining company, I helped perpetuate it.
When the mining stops, what’s left are sick people and a failing town; the kind of community where even those who have worked themselves into “middle class respectability” suddenly find that their home is worth nothing, their local schools are bankrupt, and all their debts are as big as ever.
Right now, Joe Manchin is standing in the way of a reconciliation bill that offers West Virginia an off ramp on the road to ruin. And why he’s doing it … that doesn’t even really matter.
Vote Manchin and Republicans out of office, and your lives will get better because of that alone.
What does a community look like when an extraction industry shuts down? Pick any ghost town in the West. That’s what it looks like.
In 2018, the Sierra Club took a look at the town of Lynch, Kentucky, to see what a mining community was like when the mines left. They found it “hollowed out” and falling to ruin. But Lynch is just one of many such towns. I’ve been there. I’ve seen them. It’s not just that the only industry in town has left, it’s that the industry left behind valleys filled with rubble, streets edged with coal that spilled from passing trucks, a water supply spoiled by acid runoff. I’ve been there. I grew up there. And in my decades as a geologist for a major coal mining company, I helped perpetuate it.
When the mining stops, what’s left are sick people and a failing town; the kind of community where even those who have worked themselves into “middle class respectability” suddenly find that their home is worth nothing, their local schools are bankrupt, and all their debts are as big as ever.
Right now, Joe Manchin is standing in the way of a reconciliation bill that offers West Virginia an off ramp on the road to ruin. And why he’s doing it … that doesn’t even really matter.
In fighting to cut the reconciliation bill, Joe Manchin is signing West Virginia's death certificate
As of September 2021, there are 42,300 people employed by the coal mining industry. Miners, engineers, geologists, trainers, mechanics, clerks, managers, technicians, and executives. That’s everybody. That number is down about 20% since Donald Trump...
m.dailykos.com
Vote Manchin and Republicans out of office, and your lives will get better because of that alone.
