Gov. Joe Manchin (D-Massey Energy) seeks Obama's ear on coal, cap-and-trade

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

apparently the pleas of activists from devastated coalfield communities who visited Joe yesterday fell on deaf ears
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CHARLESTON -- The governor of the country's second-largest coal-producing state is angling for a sit-down with President Barack Obama over his administration's stance on climate change and its pursuit of cap-and-trade legislation.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his state has a role to play as the nation considers cutting climate-affecting energy sources.

Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, and coal releases that gas when burned. The White House wishes to curb carbon emissions and reduce the use of fossil-derived fuel, though that goal also dovetails with the push to replace foreign oil as a key energy source.

While less than a fourth of the energy consumed in the U.S. last year came from coal, it accounted for just over half the country's electric power. Manchin hopes that will help him persuade the president that investing in the right technology can allow the U.S. to continue to rely on coal, but more cleanly.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1536730174/Manchin-seeks-Obamas-ear-on-coal-cap-and-trade

[elleng]

1. WV has problems,

and Gov. seeks help. Not unusual.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

2. governor fails to plan for the future

and clings to stubborn industry of the past

politicians here have seen this day coming for years, but have made zero effort to diversify the state's economy and act like every miniscule move by the epa means the end of the world for big coal.

[elleng]

3. Into which industries might they diversify?

[theHandpuppet]

5. Therein lies the problem

It's pretty much all they've got unless you count the chemical plants along the Kanawha that use the river as their personal toxic waste experiment. That's a catastrophe just waiting to happen.

At a time when American industry in general has floundered, what is there to replace King Coal in WV? Unless you offer people an alternative, of course they are going to desperately hold on to what has carried them through thick and thin, i.e., coal, especially when those are union jobs. Folks in WV don't want to see their mountains reduced to rubble or their streams poisoned.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Joe Manchin (D)ino) for Underwood...

West Virginia don't only have "Mothman" we have MOLEman too!

I hope Joe don't ever get Robert Byrd's seat in Washington.

[theHandpuppet]

6. I'm afraid Joe is just biding his time

But the thought of Shelley Moore Capito stepping into Byrd's seat is so nightmarish I can't even go there.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. "Shelley Moore Capito stepping into Byrd's seat"

I just lost my breakfast...

I wonder if the state's border has grown much? My dad told me when I was a kid, that "if you flattened all the mountains in West Virginia, this state would be as big as Texas." Maybe the Pubs and the Dinos are trying to pull a Tom DeLay type gerrymandering trick here by making the "Level Mountain State" state as big as Texas?