Reply #9: They're desperate folks. But they rate our attention.

[Dogmudgeon]

West Virginia is rich in natural and human resources, but poor in financial wealth and reputation -- undeservedly. It has long been the red-headed stepchild of the Northeast, the South, and the Midwest. The elites of none of those regions want them as their own. Northerners scorn them as Hillbillies. They are not quite midwestern enough to be Midwesterners. They are Southerners who allied with the Union, though the prejudice against people from that area reaches back 400 years to the English/Irish-Scottish conflicts.

But ... sabotaging energy development is NOT the way to do it. Wind power is poorly- or non-workable in many places, but West Virginia is one of better places for using the wind. In addition, the eastern hillsides are as suited to catching the sun's light as the western slopes are for catching the prevailing winds, and there is plenty of water for hydroelectric generation as well as cooling nuclear reactors, with extensive and stable cave systems for storing spent fuel until we legalize recycling.

And, the social and economic networks that James Kunstler and other relocalizers talk about are largely intact in WV. Suburbanization has not affected the area quite as badly. If there is a powerdown-related series of socioeconomic crashes, West Virginia will fare better than many places.

This is an excellent opportunity for the Democrats to motivate our West Virginian brethren to get their heads out of their asses with some prime pork dedicated to developing education, technology, infrastructure, and energy modernization. Not only would it pay political dividends, it would jump-start a new area of economic development in the Appalachians well north of the Piedmont.

West Virginia is a wonderful place. It seriously deserves a chance.

--p!