Isn't it wonderful how, when debating mountaintop removal or new coal-fired power plants in southwestern Virginia, the argument that seems to trump all others is the "economic benefit" all this coal digging and burning will bring to SWVA communities? Well, so much for that theory:
The coal-fired power plant under construction outside St. Paul, Va., was not the first to promise jobs, economic development and prosperity for Southwest Virginia. The same promises were made here 50 years ago when the Clinch River Plant was built."The coming of the plant into Southwest Virginia will stimulate other plants to locate in the area and to utilize the vast natural resources. It will mark the beginning of a new era," said American Electric Power President Philip Sporn at the plant's groundbreaking on May 16, 1956.
[...]
In half a century, the jobs have not materialized, and there is a sharp difference in opinion on whether the company has kept its promises.
The people who live here in the shadow of the smokestacks say the plant's negative effects go beyond dust and noise. They say it has destroyed their community's spirit and reduced its numbers, and many claim that there are high numbers of cancer cases among Carbo residents.
When Eric and I traveled to SWVA last spring, one thing that we noticed, over and over again, was that coal had NOT brought prosperity to the region. To the contrary, what happened is what Jim Webb - whose ancestors go back generations in the Appalachian coal areas - writes about in Born Fighting:
...The ever-hungry industrialists had discovered that West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southwest Virginia sat atop one huge vein of coal. And so the rape began. The people from the outside showed up with complicated contracts that the small-scale cattle raisers and tobacco farmers could not fully understand, asking for "rights" to mineral deposits they could not see, and soon they were treated to a sundering of their own earth as the mining companies ripped apart their way of life, so that after a time the only option was to go down into a hole and bring the Man his coal, or starve. The man got his coal, and the profits it brought when he shipped it out. They got their wages, black lung, and the desecration of their land. Oil made the Middle East rich. Coal made this part of Appalachia a poverty-stricken basket case while the rest of the mountain region remained mired in isolation.
So, despite all evidence to the contrary why do we keep hearing the Big Lie put forth by the coal companies (and coal-consuming utilities like Dominion Power, of course), repeated by politicians of both parties (including, sadly, leading Democrats) that coal is essential to the economy of southwestern Virginia? Hint: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Except, of course, when it's time to put out those glossy tourism books and a few mountains would look nice.