BY EDITOR FOR WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Just like his grandfather and father before him, James Scyphers spent almost two decades mining coal in West Virginia.
“These were the best jobs in the area; we depended on ’em,” he recalls.
But mining jobs started disappearing, declining from 132,000 in 1990 to 53,000 in 2018, devastating the area’s economy. In a state that now has the lowest labor-force participation rate in the nation, the long-term decline of coal mining has left West Virginia residents without new options to make a living.
Scyphers was fortunate to find a construction job, but it paid two-thirds less than what he earned underground. He often took odd jobs to make ends meet. One of those odd jobs included building hives and tending bees for the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective…
Read the full story on the West Virginia Public Broadcasting site »
This is only one of several types of jobs that West Virginians can have if we would develop our economy in areas other than fossil fuel development. When looking for economic development, we have to weigh the costs and benefits. The costs of coal, oil, and gas develoment are horrendously huge and long-term. It destroys land and health, and puts a strain on our economy. We can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Fossil fuels have to go in favor of things we really need. Updating our crumbling infrastructure is one area we need to concentrate on now, before it’s too late. We need good roads and strong utilities – water, electricity, and gas lines all need to be updated immediately. These things all provide jobs, without the destruction that accompanies fossil fuel development. And those jobs mostly don’t go to local people, anyway. Just like the pipeline. We built numerous camps and RV parks for those transient workers to come and work here for a few months or a year and then leave. Meanwhile, they don’t care about the community at all because they are going to leave it soon. And our beautiful water resources are being destroyed, our mountains and trees cut, while our carbon levels are out the roof. We are doing it backwards. #wakeupwv Fossil fuels are not your friend.