Some good news on job creation in Tennessee:
The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $3,589,704 National Emergency Grant to assist with clean-up and recovery efforts in the wake of the severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and associated flooding that struck Tennessee last month.
"The devastation caused by recent storms across the Southeast has been heart-wrenching," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "While we can't eliminate the distress caused by the storms, the grant announced today is part of the rebuilding process to help the people of Tennessee get back on their feet."
The funds are being awarded to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and will be used to create temporary jobs to assist in recovery efforts.
As a result of the recent storms, President Obama declared the state of Tennessee a disaster area. On May 1, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared Bradley, Greene, Hamilton and Washington counties eligible for its Public Assistance Program. On May 9, FEMA added Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Henderson, Henry, Houston, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, Montgomery, Obion, Shelby and Stewart to the list of eligible counties. All of the counties under these two declarations have been targeted to receive assistance under this grant. More information on designated disaster areas in Tennessee is available from http://www.fema.gov.
National Emergency Grants are part of the secretary of labor's discretionary fund and are awarded based on a state's ability to meet specific guidelines. For more information, visit http://www.doleta.gov/....
The bad news? It's getting harder and harder to deny the reality of climate change, or its negative impact on the American taxpayer.
The massive flooding of the Mississippi River and its tributaries this spring comes a year after massive historic flooding in the Nashville and Clarksville areas in 2010. Downtown Nashville was completely flooded, and the newly-built Schermerhorn Symphony Center was badly damaged. Thousands of area homes were flooded.
Severe weather and flooding are not necessarily a direct result of climate change, but the increased frequency of such disasters in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions (remember Snowpocalypse?) illustrates a trend that climate scientists have been warning about for years. The fluctuations in temperature, the warming of oceans, and the mix of hot and cold extremes is all connected to global climate change and increased carbon emissions. What's going on today is just a preview of what's coming.
Of course, disaster capitalists don't mind this at all. A disaster is just an opportunity to make more money by responding to an emergency. Emergencies lead to bad decision-making, faulty logic, rushes to judgment, and risky gambles by desperate people. Edison said that necessity is the mother of invention, and he was right. But the flipside of this is that disasters lead to disastrous consequences for victims. And what's more, our (lack of) response to the climate crisis is completely unnecessary.
So, while I'm sure that unemployed Tennesseans who get temp jobs doing disaster recovery will welcome the additional income, and the opportunity to make a difference, I can't help but think that they'd much rather be working on manufacturing wind turbines in Tennessee rather than outsourcing those jobs to China. I can't help but think that Tennesseans would rather be figuring out how to use switchgrass or other biofuels, instead of paying $3.75 a gallon for gas at the Flying J Travel Center (brought to you by our own Governor, Dollar Bill Haslam).
It's time for us to create an economy where we stop importing foreign oil and start exporting something other than jobs. (Am I right, Drew Westen?) And it's time for us to fire the idiots who did nothing in the last legislative session to create Tennessee jobs, and decided to give themselves an extended summer vacation after they passed a bunch of stupid and counterproductive laws. It's time to fire legislators who hate government, and start looking for candidates who want a government that works.
UPDATE: 7:15 PM CDT: weatherdude is up with another diary chronicling tornado disasters in Joplin, MO and also notes widespread tornado damage in Minneapolis, MN.