The End of Coal. The End of West Virginia?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy in an article posted on The Charleston Gazette's website on September 27th, 2011, coal production in Appalachia will be half of what it was in 2008 by 2015.  Yes there is still coal in them thar hills, but it is getting harder to mine.  They have mined most of the thick seams in the state, and are left with the harder to reach and thinner seams.

What does this mean to West Virginia?  Well the last figures I saw said there were 15,000 miners in the state.  So about 7,500 of them will be out of work.  While this is bad, the worst is yet to come.  The state will be losing a considerable amount of coal severance tax.  They will need to plan now for the shortfall.

The smart thing to do is to plan to transition away from coal.  Coal has been good to West Virginia for about 100 years.  But the news that production will be cut in half should be a wake-up call to the people and businesses in the state.  We need to diversify our industries.  With the vast experience in energy and chemical production, we need to leverage that knowledge to move forward.  Renewable energy technology would seem like the best, most likely fit for the state moving forward.

And, it would be best, if the companies providing this technology were home-grown West Virginia businesses.  It would help to break the cycle here in the state of outside companies making money off of West Virginia resources and taking the money out of state.  With home-grown businesses, more of the money stays in West Virginia and benefits our state.

Click here to read the article in The Charleston Gazette.

Thunder in the Mountains

Over the summer I read Thunder In the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21.  It is about the largest armed insurrection in US history.  About ten thousand miners rode, drove and marched from Charleston, West Virginia to Blair Mountain.  There they had an armed stand-off, with occasional gunfire, with about five thousand men made up mostly of deputized citizens and some State Police along a 10 mile line.  This went on for 3 days until the Governor convinced the President to send the military.  The miners disarmed and surrendered without a fight, because their fight was not against the US Government, it was against the mine operators.  

I grew up 10 or 15 miles from where this happened and I did not hear anything about it until maybe 10 years ago.  The book is very readable.  A lot of it is in short snippets of news stories.  It was very interesting to read things I did not know about the town I lived in and about a couple of people I knew.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes history, and specifically West Virginia History.

One Year and Counting

Still unemployed after a year. But it is not for lack of trying. I have sent out at least 2 applications/resumes each week. Most weeks it was three or four. I have approached my job search in a very organized manner and sensible manner. I never blindly send out resumes. I always targeted them to either specific ads or specific companies which I research.
Now, I am asking you - the one or two people that still check this blog. Do you know of any jobs either in IT or retail sales. I would prefer the job to be somewhere in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia or in Central West Virginia (telecommuting would be great as well)

Please let me know if you know of anything.



Thank You!

New Bloggers Added

Please look to the right hand column for new bloggers from Martinsburg, West Virginia.  Please go visit their sites.  If you are a blogger from Martinsburg (or anywhere in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia), leave me a comment or email me and  I will add a link to you.

If you don't want me to link you, let me know and I will take down the link.

As for my reading lately... I will update it very soon.

Added Martinsburg Blogs

Here are 5 more blogs I found with Bloggers from Martinsburg, WV. Some are old, lapsed blogs, some are current. Give them some love. Go visit and enjoy!

I encourage any blogger to post, but more especially those from my local area.



The World According to John Lapsed Blog


The HOmIcidAL MaNiac GAmER Lapsed Blog


ANiTASz STUFF! Lapsed Blog


Ashley


Axis of Evil Lapsed Blog

If you are from Martinsburg or from the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and you have a blog that is not linked from my blog, let me know and I will check it out and put up a link.

If you are from the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and would like to blog, let me know. I will give you information and encouragement.