C
ommemorating the 50th anniversary of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, President Obama launched his own initiative that seeks to empower America’s poor and inspire upward mobility in communities across the country. Based on some of the administration’s recent policy directives, however, one has to wonder how successful his initiative will be in actually helping vulnerable Americans not only make ends meet but climb the economic ladder. In 1964, as part of his War on Poverty, President Johnson visited my hometown of Inez, Ky. to highlight the challenges facing Appalachia. Fifty years ago, one-in-three Appalachians lived in poverty. In some areas, it was closer to two-in-three. While Appalachia still has too many pockets of poverty, it is performing better overall than it was five decades ago. Considering Kentucky’s intimate connection with the War on Poverty, it isn’t surprising that President Obama designated several counties a “promise zone.” But if you talk to Kentuckians, they are dismayed. In many cases, they are downright puzzled by the attention the state is receiving from the president, since his own policies have had such a devastating impact on their livelihoods. Indeed, in many parts of the state, this decline can be singularly tied to one factor: the administration’s regulatory assault on coal-based industries. Having spent my life and much of my career in Kentucky, I have seen firsthand the impact of this assault on coal communities. Across the state, coalfields are abandoned, mines are shuttered and widespread job losses are breaking the back of Kentucky families. This impacts other businesses too. Large industries and small businesses that depend on affordable and reliable electricity feel the pinch. As these businesses shed jobs, communities lose much of their tax base, which hurts local schools, police departments and hospitals. It creates a spiral of despair. It comes as no surprise then that Kentucky, along with West Virginia and Wyoming – the two
other top coal-producing states in the country – are the most pessimistic about the U.S. economy, according to Gallup’s newest economic confidence index. Yet in other states, families and workers are also seeing some alarming trends. The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) recently commissioned a study that examines how energy costs, which in most U.S. states have risen in the past few years, are impacting America’s poorest and most vulnerable families. The results indicate a deeply troubling reality that the poorest families spend the highest portion of their household budget – sometimes up to 90 percent of their income – on energy. In my home state of Kentucky, families making below $50,000 spend, on average, 20 percent of their income on energy. The poorest Kentucky households spend nearly three quarters of their money meeting their energy needs. Even more troubling is that these costs are increasing. Since 2005, Kentucky residential energy prices have increased by 25 percent in real terms. If affordable, reliable coal is further diminished in our energy portfolio, that number would increase significantly. Data for the other 31 states’ studies, not surprisingly, reveal nearly identical stories. This administration boasts of its “all-of-theabove” energy strategy, but the reality is they are taking an “all-but-one” approach – shifting quickly away from coal toward less abundant, less reliable and more costly fuel sources. This, in turn, has caused energy prices to spike and has threatened electric grid reliability. Throughout the winter, cold snaps across the country have left our electric grid on life support, giving us a glimpse into America’s energy future if we continue pursuing an unbalanced energy portfolio that takes coal out of the mix. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted electric supplier PJM, which provides power for much of the East Coast, a waiver request in February to raise the long-standing price cap of $1,000 per megawatt-hour. That ACCLive.com | Issue 1 2014 | American Coal
59
NOLTE LOURENS/SHUTTERSTOCK
feature