On Thursday the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources in the US House will be holding a hearing on the federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Program to discuss reauthorization of the program and how it can help local economies and the environment. The AML program...
Ted Boettner
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West Virginia Legislative Session Starts Shrouded in Secrecy & Bad Ideas
The West Virginia Legislature got underway on Wednesday, February 10th, and so far the legislative session has been marked by a lack of accountability and transparency, advancing legislation aimed at crippling public education, reducing workers' rights, and securing...
Low-Wage Jobs Are the Future in Ohio River Valley Without Policy Change
If policymakers at the state and federal level want to build a strong economy with good paying jobs in the Ohio River Valley region it will require raising wages, improving job quality standards, and increasing disposable income of workers. That's because most new...
West Virginia’s Oil & Gas Industry Pushing for Millions in Property Tax Cuts
While West Virginians are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to figure out if their kids can attend school, the oil and gas industry is working with the West Virginia State Tax Department to cut its property taxes by as much as $62 million per year. Last...
The Fracking Boom in Appalachia: Big GDP Growth, Small Amount of Jobs and Local Income
"If our economy seems to be growing but that growth is not sustainable because we are destroying the environment and using up scarce natural resources, our statistics should warn us. But because GDP didn't include resource depletion and environmental degradation, we...
Inequality is Robbing Workers of Pay in the Ohio River Valley
Workers in West Virginia should be making $117,000 a year on average -- and they would be too, if only we had pursued the same economic strategies we had in the 1970s. Instead, we've taken power away from workers, lowered taxes on the wealthy, and designed an economic...
Meeting the Climate Challenge in the Ohio River Valley
Climate change is the single biggest challenge of the 21st century. The global community has just ten years to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half and less than thirty years to build a sustainable, carbon neutral economy that can protect the planet and public health...