Building Shared Prosperity & Clean Energy
Generations of fossil fuel development have hollowed out the Ohio River Valley economy, hemorrhaging jobs and accelerating population decline. Investing in the region’s energy transition is an opportunity to spur job growth and shared prosperity across the region.
Clean energy generation, energy efficiency retrofits, quality-of-life focused development, and large-scale initiatives to repair the damage from the oil and gas industry could create tens of thousands of jobs and revitalize long-struggling communities. Here’s how.
“A clean energy pathway for Western Pennsylvania is less costly, creates more jobs, and more effectively reduces climate-warming emissions relative to a pathway centered around natural gas and carbon capture.”
Reports:
All research on Shared Prosperity & Clean Energy:
Appalachia Could Address Poverty and Build Worker Power by Reforesting Mine-scarred Land
This post is the second in a four-part series based on a recent ORVI report on abandoned mine land (AML) issues. Figures cited below can be found in the accompanying report. Abandoned coal mines have damaged thousands of acres of land, polluted hundreds of miles of...
Jobs and equitable transition: Bridging the chasm between rhetoric and action
There was a time when the sight of rows of office workers hammering away at their Friden adding machines would have sent me into paroxysms of delight because I, the Victor Comptometer salesman, had a new and better “programmable calculator” that could kick the...
American Jobs Plan Can Accelerate Solar Power in West Virginia
As a recent article in Forbes noted, the ‘dam has broken’ in West Virginia for solar power. While solar energy comprises less than 0.2 percent of electricity production in the state today, the market for solar energy is marching forward. Despite not having a renewable...
“What’s the alternative?”: Answering the hardest question asked by workers and communities that feel threatened by energy transition
At ORVI, we’ve documented the inability of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to serve as engines for job growth and prosperity in Appalachia. Although these findings may be greeted with doubt, disbelief, and sometimes anger, we find that, once the numbers...
Eliminate West Virginia Met Coal Subsidy to Assist Dislocated Coal Workers
Several weeks ago, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) released their plan for “Preserving Coal Country” amid national policy efforts to address climate change and regrow the economy with large-scale infrastructure investments. The UMWA plan listed several...
Repairing the Damage from Hazardous Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells
An analysis of the potential benefits of a large-scale federal program to plug abandoned oil and gas wells in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Repairing the Damage: Cleaning Up the Land, Air, and Water Damaged by the Coal Industry Before 1977
Cleaning up Appalachia’s thousands of acres of abandoned mine lands could create jobs, reduce climate-warming emissions, improve quality of life, and minimize environmental damage.
An Energy State No More: As coal vanishes from the grid, so might West Virginia’s status as an energy state
In 10 years, unless West Virginia leapfrogs from its coal-dominated energy system to one driven by clean renewable resources, it will cease to be an energy state West Virginia’s status as an energy state — one that produces more energy than it consumes – will almost...
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...