I wish you guys all the best in your fight and if there is anything I can do to help, all you need do is say the word.

As always, right on…point. I want to share a couple of things here, if you dont mind me taking up alot of space. But first I want to say that I hope your blog gets out there, WAY out there, and when we get the website more updated we will have links to good blogs and I will make sure that we include yours on it. Below I am posting two things.

The first is a letter to the editor that got published in today’s post, where I write my own thoughts on the Hobet 22 mine and sustainable economic development and jobs. The second is ever more economic, and I think it speaks for itself, but it basically compares the number of jobs and the county revenue that would be generated by going with wind and underground mining versus that that would come with mountaintop removal on Coal River Mountain.

I hope each of these informs your readers about the choices being made in southern West Virginia, and what is being lost in economic terms at least through the utilization of Mountaintop Removal, and what could and SHOULD be happening instead. Thank you for all of your writing, and give me a call anytime to chat, it was good meeting you with Chuck. take care of yourself.

http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/Letters/200808201332

Strip miners need jobs that will stay

Editor:

Hobet 22 is likely the first of many coming discussions of how jobs will be impacted if mountaintop removal coal mining is stopped. What is always left out of that discussion is the question of what can be done in order to ensure stable jobs for strip miners while also bringing an end to mountaintop removal so that they no longer have to fear future unemployment.

Recent articles about Hobet 22 suggest that strip-mine jobs don’t provide long-term, stable incomes. Quoting one article: “Corps permit records say Hobet 22 would employ 75 workers [for] a three-year period.” Is that what this debate is about? Three-year jobs? If so, how about creating new, stable jobs that strip-miners can be readily trained for?

One solution is to develop West Virginia’s vast renewable energy resources. Developing West Virginia’s 10,000-plus megawatts of large and small-scale wind potential alone would create tens of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance of wind turbines. These are jobs that last far longer than three years. They last forever. These could be safe, union jobs that aren’t likely to be shut down, and they are jobs that strip miners can be readily trained for.

And now for my econ analysis for Coal River Mountain:

The Case for Choosing Wind and Underground Mining on Coal River Mountain
..…versus the proposed Mountaintop Removal Operation

A Comparison of Severance Taxes

- Potential Severance tax distribution related to the Strip-Mining of Coal River Mountain:

o $38 Million to the State of WV each year, for a TOTAL of 14 years.

§ Equal to approximately 0.08% of total Gross State Product (GSP)

§ Equal to approximately 0.60% of total contributions from coal to GSP

o $2.9 Million in annual severance taxes to be distributed to WV counties, for a span of 14 years.

o $2.1 Million per year to be distributed to coal-producing counties, for a span of 14 years.

o Only $138,000 in annual severance tax revenues going back to Raleigh County from the Strip-Mining of Coal River Mountain.

- Potential Severance/Wind tax distribution related to the Combined Underground Mining and Development of Wind Power on Coal River Mountain:

o **50% of the coal underneath Coal River Mountain will still be mineable through underground mining methods. This estimate has been confirmed by one of the majority landholders of Coal River Mountain**

o So, the state of West Virginia will still receive over $19 Million in annual severance taxes – out of the potential $38 Million – from the underground mining of coal from Coal River Mountain.

o Therefore, the total severance tax revenues lost by choosing wind and underground mining over the proposed strip-mining operations amounts to $19 Million per year.

§ This $19 Million per year accounts for only 0.04% of total GSP for 2006, and for only 0.3% of total GSP contributions from coal production.

o For Raleigh County, the wind farm alone will bring a minimum of $750,000 in county tax revenues annually, and forever.

§ By comparison, as noted above, the proposed mountaintop removal operation will provide the county with only $138,000 per year, and for a span of only 14 years.

Concluding Question: Is it worth it for the State of West Virginia to allow the proposed mountaintop removal operation to proceed, when Raleigh County will gain greater benefits from the proposed wind farm and the expansion of underground mining?

The coal production, according to data provided in the DEP permit files for each of the four individual permits, will last for only 14 years, and according to a wind modeling study conducted for a nearby mountaintop removal site (Cherry Pond Mountain), the loss of hundreds of feet of altitude eliminates the commercial viability of the local wind resource by reducing the average annual wind speed. Therefore, should the mining proceed, it will eliminate a source of energy, jobs and county tax revenue that would have lasted forever, and that would have brought a greater number of jobs and more tax revenues to Raleigh County than the proposed mountaintop removal operation would. To re-iterate, is it worth letting the wind resources on Coal River Mountain be destroyed for a mere 0.04% of the annual West Virginia Gross State Product??

Jobs: The wind + underground scenario would create over 250 additional jobs for Raleigh County, whereas the strip-mining operation would only create an annual average of 148 jobs over the 14 years of operation, and after the coal has been mined out, there would still be jobs available with the wind farm.

Energy: It would take only 32 total years for the wind + underground mining scenario to equal the amount of energy produced by the mountaintop removal operation over the 14 year mining period.