A WV art form

I'm a bit behind in blogging (and I apologize for the annoying alliteration), but must call attention to an event earlier this week when Gov. Justice and representatives of extractive industries called a press conference to protest that old trope "the war on coal."

Here's coverage from the Gazette-Mail and WV MetroNews.

I get it. I mean, it's worked so well for them in the past, politically and economically.

This time the villain isn't a black man with an unusual name but rather rootless cosmopolitan New York financier Michael Bloomberg (do I hear another dog whistle going off?--that worked really well for them in the past as well.) This "limousine liberal" pledged to spend $500 million to put coal power plants out of business by 2030 in an effort to reduce the effects of climate change.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the short term profits of our rulers vastly outweighs the future of life on earth in terms of importance.

In any event, it had all the ingredients of a good old WV ruling class hissy fit, including a denial of climate change, the denunciation of  an "Other" from out of state and the portrayal of WV's colonial overlords as benefactors.

Here's my take: if they're that worried about it, they have a remedy within reach. $500 million is pretty close to the amount of regressive tax cuts business groups and the wealthy enjoy each year.

What if?

The descendants of the Vikings figured out a thing or two.

Not so long ago, I, along with lots of good folks and a very impressive coalition,  spent a good bit of time and effort trying to get the state of West Virginia to pass legislation creating a Future Fund. This would have involved setting aside a portion of state severance tax revenue, allowing it to build, and using the interest as a permanent source of wealth for the state.

The bill passed in 2014. Ish. Unfortunately, it was sabotaged in the House of Delegates (at a time when Democrats held the majority in both houses) and basically made unworkable for the foreseeable future. Since there, there's been a political earthquake or three and a big dip in coal production and gas prices.

I'm still hopeful that the Future Fund can be made workable at some point. And I can't help thinking about how different West Virginia would have been today if one had been set up years ago.

Case in point: Norway. When that country experienced an oil boom, those socialistic Vikings were smart enough to set aside a portion of their revenue for pensions and public expenses. Apparently they were smart enough to figure out that this stuff you take out of the ground doesn't grow back (at least for several million years).

Today, that fund is worth $1 trillion. Yes, that would be the number with 12 zeros. It's worth about $190,000 for each resident of Norway.

I know there's no way WV's version would  have been anywhere near that even if we started decades ago. But we would have been in better shape than we are now.