Two E. Tennessee ex-mining towns try to change their fortunes

[theHandpuppet]

I really liked the approach taken for Briceville with the Thacker’s Coal Creek Watershed Foundation and its founder, Barry Thacker. Educational opportunity is the key!

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2014/08/31/two-e-tenn-ex-mining-towns-try-change-fortunes/14912097/
The Tennessean
Two E. Tenn. ex-mining towns try to change their fortunes
Travis Loller, Associated Press

ROCKY TOP, Tenn. – In the Appalachian foothills of eastern Tennessee, Rocky Top and Briceville share a common heritage and a common problem: How to revive communities that once boasted bustling main streets and jobs for nearly anyone willing to mine the coal once plentiful in the deep shafts underground.

Briceville has embraced the long-range vision of a nonprofit group offering college scholarships to people who are often first in their families to go beyond high school.

About five miles away, the town recently known as Lake City decided to change its name to Rocky Top. It is banking on the quick-strike dreams of developers promising a multimillion-dollar tourist complex built around the popular bluegrass song that declares, “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home, to me. Good ol’ Rocky Top. Rocky Top, Tennessee.”

The contrasting paths reflect more than divergent ideas. They dig deep into the increasing desperation of places across Appalachia mired in poverty and decline and receptive to any kind of help to reinvent themselves.... MORE at link provided above.

[NYC_SKP]

1. The region is prime for ecotourism, culture tourism, and has wind energy generation potential.

[A Little Weird]

2. Sounds like some good ideas.

I hope they are successful.

[Staph]

3. I wish that there was some openness to that idea in West Virginia's coal country.

There just isn't that much coal left. In 2012, the World Coal Association said that there was enough coal left in the world to last 109 years, at the current level of extraction. If usage increases (especially in the third world), you could cut that to half that number, to a third, to a quarter. What are the miners going to do in 27 years, when there is no coal left, period?

You really hit a hot button for me with this one. I've responded to two push-polls in the last three days, pushing the "Obama hates coal" meme, to try to get a couple of local Tea Party types elected here in West Virginia. I got the second pollster giggling at my answers.

[theHandpuppet]

4. The short-sightedness is maddening

The writing has been on the wall for years. The Appalachian economy MUST transition but the denial & resistance to reality drives me nuts. The low-sulfur coal that can easily be accessed has already been mined. Hoped-for overseas contracts have been cancelled due to, among other things, less than anticipated growth in the economies of India and China. Cheaper sources for coal, such as Ecuador, are picking up the business dropped domestically.

The coal industry as done a helluva job convincing people in Appalachia that the downturn in mining is a liberal/democratic conspiracy. Anything but the truth. I do have a problem with the way the gov't has been approaching this issue with the miners of Appalachia. The professorial approach just doesn't resonate and probably has the opposite effect because it depersonalizes the crisis. What is needed from D.C. is INVESTMENT. Money invested in education, jobs programs, and just plain old jobs. If people are scared shitless that they won't be able to feed and clothe their families they're not going to be interested in lectures. They want a paycheck. If this nation has bottomless pockets for war and tax cuts for the rich, it sure as hell ought to have the money to provide jobs in Appalachia.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Here's an article from the Charleston Gazette that explains the situation better than I can

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140731/GZ01/140739830