At the risk of having this comment moderated, I would caution reliance on Romm because he is very committed to seeing W-M’s passage more than, I fear, disclosing its dirty laundry, to the detriment of most of those sitting around coal.

I don’t understand why someone fighting MTR seems high on CCS, which is the impression I get. I do not think your mountains would stand the test of time for very long in a CCS world.

And, it cites an item in Roll Call:
http://www.rollcall.com/news/36309-1.html

Ken.

Last fall I and some others went to some environmental foundations in DC, looking for $15,000 to pay for a conference on the effects of climate change in the West Virginia Highlands.

It was a rotten time to be looking for that kind of soft money, and we struck out — even though we had dynamite speakers lined up, etc.

The conference would have been a way for some well-intentioned people in WV to discuss climate change in a less frightening and divisive context than say, the conflict over mountaintop removal mining.

I don’t think our failure was just a timing matter, though. I think that the powerful people on the global and national level, including politicians and business leaders and environmental foundations — who see the inescapable need to scale back carbon emissions to save human civilization — are basically not very interested in helping people in Appalachia and the coalfields face and deal with that fact.

After all, why would they be?

These national and global folks assume, with a lot of reason, that because of coal use limitations dictated by climate change policy, many folks in the coalfields will just live in relative poverty, die off, and/or move away — just as they did when hundreds of thousands of coal mining jobs disappeared due to mechanization not all that long ago.

The current level of national suport for activities in the coalfields that weaken the coal industry, like efforts to oppose mountaintop removal mining, can be seen as in good part motivated by the desire to weaken the coal forces in the national climate policy debate; and not primarily to help the people in the coalfields — especially to help them cope with the coming effects of climate policy.

As you say, those of us who live here have local political leaders who are almost entirely constrained by the politics and economics of the situation. They are afraid to talk about climate policy and transition — because really, they have little to offer. If I were in their shoes, I’d be the same way.

Business leaders and investors, with some good reason, believe that it’s impossible to “replace” something like the Appalachian coal industry, no matter how many highways and industrial parks you build. And there just isn’t that much ginseng.

RyanWVWC is making a lot of good points on this issue, and I’m glad to see them on this blog.

So, the pressure is immense, locally, as you say, to keep our heads in the sand. Meanwhile, looking for national help, we will get just as much as we can fight for, but not much more.

It’s not a pretty picture, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t face it squarely. And today’s historic vote in Congress, even with our WV Congresspeople absent for the moment, is the future coming calling!

Yes, we can!

King Coal is more powerful than the state.

Coal can make or break anybody running for anything.

(just look at the sham election of Benjamin to the Supreme Court.)

The next step needs to be for the Feds to take over primacy in the enforcement of environmental regulations.