Polls
WV voters slam Biden, approve of Justice, Manchin in latest MBE Research poll
About 69 percent of West Virginia voters are applauding Gov. Justice for his work since taking office in 2017. His disapproval rate was 28 percent.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has an overall job approval rating of 60 percent compared to Biden’s 32 percent.
The MBE Research poll also found 78 percent of voters said they support Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) working together in a bipartisan effort to pass the national infrastructure bill to address roads, bridges, power and other needs.
Nearly 74 percent of voters also said Manchin should oppose the president’s Build Back Better plan.
But
Whatever you think you know about WV voters is wrong, for all values of you including Joe Manchin. Yes, they are hugely Trumpish, and claim to support the filibuster, but they are incredibly on board with Biden’s agenda on covid, jobs, and voting. We have the numbers. Even the coal miners have come out for renewable energy and jobs.
And still they don’t like Biden personally or as President.
Poll: Fewer than half of West Virginians believe legitimacy of 2020 presidential election
Bogus clickbait headline. Actually, slightly more said the election was legitimate than illegitimate. The difference is not statistically significant, but it is there.
Forty-four percent of respondents said the election result was determined legitimately.
Forty-three percent said the result was the result of voting fraud and election rigging.
And 14 percent said they aren’t sure.
OK, then. That 14% is a legitimate campaign target.
Anyway, that’s horserace polling. What about issues?
Polling shows West Virginians open to energy transition
When asked if respondents agree with the statement that coal is the backbone of the state and that renewable energy is hurting mining jobs, 59 percent of statewide respondents and 59 percent of coal country respondents agreed. But when asked whether they agree that the economy is shifting away from coal and fossil fuels towards clean and renewable energy sources, 69 percent of statewide respondents and 73 percent of coal country respondents agreed.
Another 90 percent of statewide respondents and 95 percent of coal country respondents could identify the benefits of shifting focus from the traditional energy industry in West Virginia towards clean energy production, including the use of carbon capture and sequestration and renewable energy (wind/solar/hydro).
When asked their perception of what energy sources are clean, 67 percent of statewide respondents said coal was not clean energy, while 67 percent of coal country respondents agreed that coal was not a clean energy source. Solar power was considered the cleanest energy source by 85 percent of statewide respondents, while 92 percent of statewide respondents said wind power was the cleanest.
If I were an election strategist, I could work with that.
Coal Mines
Coal Production Drop Off Leaves Behind Unreclaimed Mine Lands
That drop off has caused job losses as well as losses in income and severance taxes. At the same time as those coal companies close down, and often declare bankruptcy, it has left abandoned mines behind.
Brian Lego is a research assistant professor at West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. He was one of the authors of a 2018 study called “The Economic Impact of Coal In West Virginia.” He said that coal production peaked most recently in 2008, when oil prices were high. Natural disasters and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in 2011 also prompted strong global demand.
But coal production has only fallen since then. In an email he noted that “coal production averaged a shade under 80 million short tons (annualized rate) in the first quarter of 2021 and appears to have increased to somewhere in the low- to mid-80 million short tons range during the second quarter.”
That is down from 150 million short tons in 2010.
In more general terms, he said he expected exports to decline over the next decade and then fall off more sharply in the 2030s.
Since 2010, West Virginia has seen a net loss of more than 6,000 direct coal mining jobs since 2010, according to WorkForce West Virginia. There are 14,780 men and women currently working in mining in West Virginia, down from 43,875 in 1971.
A report from the Ohio River Institute says that Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) in West Virginia — these are coal mines abandoned before 1977 — account for just over 20 percent of the U.S. total and more than 24 percent of the costs.
Those mine lands account for 173,000 acres of land that need reclaimed with reclamation costs estimated at $5 billion. Only Pennsylvania has more unreclaimed pre-1977 mine lands than West Virginia. More than 30 percent of West Virginians live within a mile of an unreclaimed mine site.
The article goes on to estimate area of land in need of remediation, costs, and available funding, and the impact of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. I have suggested
Renewable Thursday: Coal Fields to Solar Farms
You know, cheap, clean energy, jobs that can’t be sent overseas, tax revenue for education and health and the rest, and a massive hit to fear and hatred.
It isn't just West Virginia and Kentucky, of course. We could power the whole country on repurposed surface mines.
WV Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation
The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands & Reclamation of West Virginia oversees and facilitates the resolving of public safety issues as mine fires & subsidence, hazardous highwalls, mining-impacted water supplies, open shafts and portals, and other dangers resulting from mining before 1977. Such practices were established by the Surface Mining and Control Act and the creation of the Office of AML&R in 1981. The Office of Surface Mining provides oversight to the Office of AML&R.
Scientists Find Appalachian Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Put Endangered Species at Risk Thousands of Times