A number of local environmental groups, including
Appalachian Voices, the Virginia Sierra Club and Southern Appalachian Mountain
Stewards responded to Big Coal’s fallacious nationwide PR campaign to stave-off
the inevitable: coal’s demise in the U.S.[1]
As if Big Coals PR blitz weren’t audacious enough, Big Coal
is also put together a “Rally for Coal Jobs” on June 2nd in
Washington County. No surprise here, Big Coal used the tried and untrue jobs
claim to lambast the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
HOWEVER, according to federal data analyzed by Appalachian
Voices, Virginia coal employment has dipped by a whopping 67% between 1984 and
2009[2].
That doesn’t sound like job creation to me! Big Coal would be more accurate
arguing that it has helped employ more Americans in the health care industry
who have to treat coal-mining related illnesses and accidents![3]
President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Sam
Broach, said it best, “We need to begin the transition to an economy
that provides lasting jobs and clean energy. The coal industry is just trying
to defend mountaintop removal, which kills jobs and kills people in our
communities.” That’s right, these are real folks losing life and limb for
an industry whose only interest is quarterly profit margins.
Virginia’s political leaders must step up now to
diversify the economy in Southwest Virginia. Southwest Virginia’s economy will
become as stagnant as coal itself unless new jobs are created in the area, jobs
that range across a wide spectrum of the economy so that any coal-like
monopolization of the local job market will never happen again.
No comments:
Post a Comment