The big news in WV these days is a "game changing" deal with China Energy that could mean $83 billion in investment around shale gas and related developments. I found two different but interesting takes on this news from different parts of the state.
This Gazette piece warns that the deal could doom WV to another century as a mineral colony and could have negative environmental impacts. Closer to the likely point of impact, I found this piece from the Wheeling Intelligencer, which is generally pretty conservative, to be interesting. While not criticizing the deal as such, it warns about the dangers of continuing to rely on one major industry, even a relatively new one.
It even calls for making the Future Fund, which is only on the books at this point, a reality. The idea behind a Future Fund is to set aside a portion of severance taxes to create a permanent source of wealth for WV.
I especially like the idea of investing more in education, or "preparing our children for careers in which they, not anything pulled from the earth, were viewed as the valuable resource."
In any case, I hope WV doesn't make the same mistake in the century to come that it did in the last one.
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1 comment:
If West Virginia continues as it has done in many prior years, it is continuing to doom itself. Where is the love??? As a native West Virginian who chose to move back here, I have been appalled at learning the voting history of the people of the state. The fact that Don Blankenship plans to run for office confirms the fact that people will vote for men who have had to serve time for their awful crimes. Puzzling, but true. So, the state is ready to rely on ONE "savior" again.....now that the King is dying?? So sad that's its embarrassing and I don't embarrass easily.....
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