Stop Beating the Dead Horse of Coal

Kentucky is still denying gravity on the subject of which industries deserve promotion and encouragement.

Janet Patton at the Herald:

Horses drive $3 billion in annual economic impact in Kentucky and create almost 41,000 jobs, according to the first in-depth study in decades of one of the state's signature industries.

The University of Kentucky economic analysis, based on statewide surveys of horses and of the people who enjoy them, shows that the equine industry creates about $1.4 billion in new income paid to workers, profits to businesses and dividends to shareholders and generates about $134 million in tax revenue for the state.

Three billion dollars is almost six times the economic impact of coal, and that's not counting the negative costs of the coal industry that outweigh its benefits and turn coal into a net loser for the state.

41,000 jobs is more than double the 20,000 jobs coal provided seven years ago, before the industry started shedding jobs by the hundreds.

No, you can't raise horses in the mountains. But you can stop pretending that the coal industry benefits Kentucky. You can stop blaming the EPA for an economic crisis in the mountains entirely caused by the exploitation of Big Coal. You can stop fantasizing that fossil fuel boom will save Eastern Kentucky.

You can stop refusing to face facts: saving Kentucky's economy is going to require stopping all coal mining and gas drilling in the state and investing billions in rebuilding the economy and social structure of the eastern and western coal fields from scratch.

It's going to have to happen eventually, The sooner we start, the sooner it will be done and the less it will cost.