2 economists, testifying before a traveling US Senate subcommittee, showed that 6 southern counties in WV are in a Depression like that of a near century ago. While looking to the future for alternative economies, energy extraction is the quickest way out. But as it stands now, in a spiral of lack of jobs, out migration, drug use, and aging populations programs are needed now.
And the supposed friend of the working man said she wanted to put the men out of work.
I know is was pooh-poohed at the Great Orange Satan site, but by writing off large swaths of Midwest and Appalachian Mid Atlantic states in her comments, she essentially did away with any cushion that would have been useful if the race tightened, as it has.
Ridge
———-excerpt——
Deskins said six counties in West Virginia are currently undergoing a “great depression” of their own due to enormous job losses.
“Boone County, for example, had 55 percent of it’s jobs in coal before recent events,” he said. “Now Boone has lost around 70 percent of it’s coal jobs. Very, very difficult time for the community.”
Now, fewer than 20 percent of the jobs in Boone County are coal jobs.
“That’s startling in and of itself,” Capito said. “And we see that.”
Deskins also included McDowell, Wyoming, Mingo, Clay, and Logan as part of the “great depression” counties.
“Those job losses, those output losses, have been heavily concentrated in southern West Virginia and especially in six counties,” Deskins said. “We have six counties that have lost between 25 percent and 33 percent of their jobs just over the last few years.”
The coal numbers, their impact on Central Appalachia, and their contrast with the other coal-producing areas of the nation are stark, according to Deskins. While coal production has dropped nationally by 10 percent since 2010, in West Virginia that production has fallen by 51 percent in that same span of time.
Deskins does expect natural gas prices to stabilize and rebound-and that’s where he, Dr. Anderson, and Senators Manchin and Capito see a potential way forward.
