Don’t be so quick to dismiss Trump’s coal mining initiative

SALENA ZITO

ACOSTA, PA. — On a warm June morning, a large crowd gathered in the lush, gentle folds of the Allegheny Mountains to hear President Donald Trump live on video.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be speaking with you on this great, great day,” he said. “The miners of Pennsylvania are mining coal again.”

On a stage, five men unfurled a gold banner that blared, in large black letters: “Trump Digs Coal,” as the audience went wild.

For the first time in nearly a decade, a new coal mine has opened here, and a US president has rallied alongside an industry deemed by many as obsolete.

The Acosta Deep Mine in Somerset County marks a dramatic upturn for the area. And while President Trump cannot claim that he brought the industry back here personally (this new mine was already being developed before the election), he is an effective cheerleader for folks who’ve been discounted by the political elite.

“We will begin by employing 70 to 100 miners and we hope to open a total of three new mines in the next 18 months — and that will mean additional hiring,” said George Dethlefsen, CEO of Corsa Coal, which owns the mine.

More than 400 people applied for the first wave of jobs that will pay from $50,000 to $100,000, Dethlefsen said.

In a region where the median household income is $29,050, and nearly 12 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the economic injection is huge.

‘I don’t think people outside of our small town understand how life-changing this development is.’

It also creates a ripple effect: For every new job generated by the mine, even more jobs like waitresses, hotel workers, barbers or grocery workers are needed to support the community.

“The money essentially stays here in our hometown,” said Greg Griffith, owner of Griffith Excavating, who was working the mine last week with his crew. He has hired new people to take on the workload and will employ even more as the other mines open.

“I don’t think people outside of our small town understand how life-changing this development is.”

He’s right about that. Just days after the event, progressives on Twitter slammed the mine, comparing the opening of an energy-supplying coal pit to the launching a VCR factory in the digital age. In their minds, it’s a waste of time.

And the response from the people of Acosta? Stop treating other Americans like the enemy.

They also point out that the criticism is wildly misinformed. The coal from this mine is not going to be used for energy — instead, it will be used for the production of steel for the next 15 years. (According to the World Steel Association, coal is used to make 70 percent of the steel today.)

Every single one of us relies on steel in our daily lives. It’s found in our cars, bikes and public transportation. Those wind turbines so loved by environmentalists? Made of steel. The utensils we use to eat? Steel. Medical devices used to save lives? Steel.

Top Hollywood Names Ready to Accept Arab Oil Money to Stop American Energy Independence

The video features an undercover journalist from Project Veritas posing as "Muhammad,” a member of a Middle Eastern oil family, offering $9 million in funding to American filmmakers to fund an anti-fracking movie. He was joined by a second undercover activist posing as an ad executive.

O’Keefe entraps actor Ed Begley Jr., actress Mariel Hemingway, and director Josh Tickell, who agree to the film while promising to hide the source of the funds.

The undercover activist tells the group that "if Washington, D.C., continues fracking, America will be energy-efficient, and then they won't need my oil anymore."

A Beat-up, Exhausted, and Terrified Republican Establishment

Victor Davis Hansen gives us a populist set of talking points for Republicans.

On almost every contemporary issue there is a populist, middle-class argument to be made against elite liberalism. Yet the Republican class in charge seems ossified in its inability to make a counter-argument for the middle class. Never has the liberal agenda been so vulnerable, a logical development when bad ideas have had five years to prove themselves as very bad ideas. ...

On illegal immigration and amnesty.

We know the entry of 11 million illegal aliens depresses the wages of the poor and entry-level working class. Illegal immigration overwhelms state services, and that too hurts citizens most in need of help. The lower-middle classes do not have low-paid nannies, gardeners, and house-keepers....

We also know that cheap labor in the shadows benefits corporate business, eager for low-wage laborers. So how hard is it for a Republican simply to say, “I oppose illegal immigration because (1) it is illegal. It undermines the sanctity of the law and discriminates against the law-abiding waiting in line to enter the U.S. legally. (2) It benefits corporate grandees at the expense of working people. (3) It is driven by self-serving elites of the ethnic-grievance industry to enhance their own advantage, rather than to help poor folks struggling to find decent wages and schools. Illegal immigration, in short, is the most illiberal issue of our time....

On energy

Fracking and horizontal drilling help the middle class. Stopping them on federal lands or banning Keystone makes the lower classes pay for the pipe dreams of the upper class. The Berkeley Sierra Club professor doesn’t worry whether he can find a job welding on a pipeline. He does not drive along the Westside 50 miles to work and so cares little about the price of gas for his third-hand pick-up. It is about 70 degrees year round in Menlo Park, so it is easy to jack power bills up to subsidize wind and solar, when you don’t need to survive 105 degree temperatures in Bakersfield.

Gun Control

How hard it is for Republicans to say to liberals, “I accuse! The wealthy have their security details, most of them armed. The underclass has access to illegal weaponry as the armed crime sprees in a Detroit or Chicago attest. Why then go after the middle class, who neither outsource their security nor break the law? Before we issue sweeping edicts aimed at the law-abiding, let us disarm all the security guards of Hollywood and Washington, D.C., and put away for good the criminals who use illegal firearms to hurt the innocent.”

Young People

Obamacare is a gift to the old and affluent, who use subsidized health care from the young and poor. It is the greatest tax on the youthful cohort in the history of the republic at a time when student debt already exceeds $1 trillion. How liberal is that? Or for that matter, how liberal were colleges to up their annual tuition rates higher than inflation,

“Fairness”

We talk about fairness. Do men and women make the same on the president’s own staff? Why does Kobe Bryant make so much and some of his gifted colleagues make so little in comparison? Does Johnny Depp really need $40 million a year when the Hollywood sound tech cannot afford a cottage in South Central L.A.? Did not the Malibu grandees hear their president say that they did not build their film careers, and at some point long ago had made enough money?

Diversity

Yes, let us all hail diversity and insist that it be applied across the board. Cannot California find a senior elected leader other than Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Nancy Pelosi? How diverse, given California’s trumpeted diversity, are three elderly multimillionaire women, with hyper-capitalist spouses, who live within commuting distance of each other in the Bay Area? Should the United States Postal service base correct its current labor profile by hiring in accordance with ethnic percentages within the population? Should Asians depart from UC Berkeley so more whites, blacks, and Latinos might enroll commensurately with their percentages in the population? Should the NFL have quotas for non-African-Americans, to give others a chance ...

Read the whole thing.

California’s New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the Multitude

As late as the 80s, California was democratic in a fundamental sense, a place for outsiders and, increasingly, immigrants—roughly 60 percent of the population was considered middle class. Now, instead of a land of opportunity, California has become increasingly feudal. According to recent census estimates, the state suffers some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. By some estimates, the state’s level of inequality compares with that of such global models as the Dominican Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of the Congo.

At the same time, the Golden State now suffers the highest level of poverty in the country—23.5 percent compared to 16 percent nationally—worse than long-term hard luck cases like Mississippi. It is also now home to roughly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients, almost three times its proportion of the nation’s population.

Like medieval serfs, increasing numbers of Californians are downwardly mobile, and doing worse than their parents: native born Latinos actually have shorter lifespans than their parents, according to one recent report. Nor are things expected to get better any time soon. According to a recent Hoover Institution survey, most Californians expect their incomes to stagnate in the coming six months, a sense widely shared among the young, whites, Latinos, females, and the less educated.

Some of these trends can be found nationwide, but they have become pronounced and are metastasizing more quickly in the Golden State. As late as the 80s, the state was about as egalitarian as the rest of the country. Now, for the first time in decades, the middle class is a minority, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

The Role of the tech oligarchs.

California produces more new billionaires than any place this side of oligarchic Russia or crony capitalist China. By some estimates the Golden State is home to one out of every nine of the world’s billionaires. In 2011 the state was home to 90 billionaires, 20 more than second place New York and more than twice as many as booming Texas.

Yet even in Silicon Valley, the expansion of prosperity has been extraordinarily limited. Due to enormous losses suffered in the current tech bubble, tech job creation in Silicon Valley has barely reached its 2000 level. In contrast, previous tech booms, such as the one in the 90s, doubled the ranks of the tech community. Some, like UC Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti, advance the dubious claim that those jobs are more stable than those created in Texas. But even if we concede that point for the moment, the Valley’s growth primarily benefits its denizens but not most Californians. Since the recession, California remains down something like 500,000 jobs, a 3.5 percent loss, while its Lone Star rival has boosted its employment by a remarkable 931,000, a gain of more than 9 percent.

Much of this has to do with the changing nature of California’s increasingly elite—driven economy. Back in the 80s and even the 90s, the state’s tech sector produced industrial jobs that sparked prosperity not only in places like Palo Alto, but also in the more hardscrabble areas in San Jose and even inland cities such as Sacramento. The once huge California aerospace industry, centered in Los Angeles, employed hundreds of thousands, not only engineers but skilled technicians, assemblers, and administrators.

This picture has changed over the past decade. California’s tech manufacturing sector has shrunk, and those employed in Silicon Valley are increasingly well-compensated programmers, engineers and marketers. There has been little growth in good-paying blue collar or even middle management jobs. Since 2001 state production of “middle skill” jobs—those that generally require two years of training after high-school—have grown roughly half as quickly as the national average and one-tenth as fast as similar jobs in arch-rival Texas.

Think of the dot.com billionaires like the Facebook and Google founders as the new Lords and Barons of this land. Their vast estates provide jobs for a relatively few servants while their green politics destroys the ability of those who don't work for them to achieve the middle class.

The Actors in Canadas Environmental Movement

EZRA LEVANT

New York may seek to reduce power for 3rd straight day

Biggest city in US joins the Third World.

New York State's power grid operator said it might ask some of its customers in its power reduction programs to limit electricity use for a third day as people crank up air conditioners to escape the brutal heat wave.

All the while the EPA and Team Obama demand the end of coal fired power plants.

Luddites at the Virginian Pilot

For those who went to public school a little explanation may be in order. “Luddites” were a movement by people who were afraid of technology. Merriam Webster:

one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly: one who is opposed to especially technological change.

The Left has become increasingly Luddite, fearful of atomic power (the Virginian Pilot has wasted tons of newsprint on this issue), oil and gas exploration and now it goes into an anti-science rant about the dangers of fracking disguised as preservation.

The Left today is nostalgic for the time when they believed they held the moral upper hand. Today we have their incessant squawk about racism and anti-science when they themselves are practicing racism and protesting technologies that make things better and cheaper. They yearn for yesterday.

The Coming War in the Middle East

That "Arab Spring" is morphing into World War 3.  It will not be contained to "Arabia."   Oil is too important.   

But don't worry, Team Obama is in charge.  Kerry is Secretary of State and Chuck Hagel will be Secretary of Defense and Barack Hussein Obama is overseeing everything.

What a nightmare.

Lawsuit Alleges “Corruption and Negligence” at Department of Energy

Just another day in ObamaLand.

A lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday alleges mass favoritism in the Department of Energy’s decisions to award federal grants to major car companies to develop electric vehicles, according to a legal complaint obtained by Scribe.

The plaintiff, San Francisco-based XP Technology, says in a complaint filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that “corruption and negligence” pervaded DOE’s decision to award loan guarantees to Ford, Nissan, Tesla Motors, and Fisker Automotive for the development of electric vehicle technology.

“Investigations have shown that DOE officials intentionally stalled numerous applicants’ reviews in order to force them out of business and protect favored players,” the complaint claims.

 

Says the US Media: "Nothing to see here, move along."

Coal barge on the Ohio River flying the Gadsden flag

Romney Ad About Obama at the Gas Pump

Coal miners ask Obama to stop ‘absolute lies’

Herald Star

Coal miners at the American Energy Corp. Century Mine said they want President Barack Obama to stop what they term the war on coal - and to stop spreading mistruths about them.

 

Read the whole thing.

Secretary Chu - Lower Gas Prices Not A Goal

California Leads the Nation ... in Gasoline Prices

What begins in California eventually gets to your town.

Obama wants gasoline prices to rise so that you will be forced to live closer to work or use public transportation. How do we know this? He appointed a man as energy secretary who stated this as a public policy goal.  That was before he became Energy Secretary and wasted $90 billion on "green energy" scams like Solyndra.  Of course he denies this today for political reasons, but you know when you can tell when a politician's lying, right?

"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," [said] Mr. Chu...

Mission accomplished.

HOW BARACK OBAMA HURTS THE POOR

President Obama’s policies have been bad for everyone, except for the handful who have profited from cronyism and those who prefer to live on welfare, but they have especially devastated poor and middle-income Americans. With a simple chart, Philip Klein explains why this is true with respect to Obama’s “green energy” initiatives.

 Via Powerline 

Obama doesn't care, he'll never be poor.

Mining company closing 8 mines, cutting 1,200 jobs in all

Obama's energy policy at work.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources said Tuesday it was cutting production by 16 million tons and eliminating 1,200 jobs companywide, laying off 400 workers immediately by closing mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The mine shutdowns start Tuesday, while the rest of the layoffs will be completed by the end of the first quarter after Alpha fulfills current sales obligations, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Crutchfield said. In all, the layoffs amount to nearly a tenth of Alpha's 13,000-person workforce.

Alpha said it was closing four mines in West Virginia, three in Virginia and one in Pennsylvania. They are a mix of deep and surface mines, and all are non-union operations....

Crutchfield said the shutdowns and layoffs are a necessary part of ensuring Alpha survives in what has become a difficult U.S. market, where coal companies face a dual challenge: Power plants are shifting to cheap, abundant natural gas, while companies like his face "a regulatory environment that's aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal."

Obama And Hard Choices

By Jeff Carter:

Last night, the Democratic convention kicked off. They talked a lot about the choices that Obama made. I thought about those choices. Obama always takes the easy way out, makes the easy choice.First ChoiceEasy choice: Stimulus to put us far deeper in debt (Salt Water Economics) vs Hard choice: Creating economic incentives for private expansion (Freshwater Economics)
Second ChoiceEasy choice, bail out $GM vs Hard choice, allow bankruptcy process to save $GMThe President made the easy choice. Obama bailed out his cronies in the unions, crushed down the debt and shareholders of GM. A managed bankruptcy would have allowed GM to stay in business, along with all the suppliers that depend on GM-but it would have changed the pensions and salaries of all GM employees-including the white collar employees.
You lost money if you bought the GM IPO. The company is losing money, has a massive pension liability and will go bankrupt again.

Read the whole thing.

Household energy costs up 11.8%.

Glenn Reynolds: 

UNDER MY PLAN, ENERGY COSTS WILL NECESSARILY SKYROCKET: Household energy costs up 11.8%.

Failure of Serious Energy is a 'BFD' for Obama and His Chicago Cronies

Before there was Solyndra, there was Serious Energy. The company was personally hyped by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Roland Burris (remember him?) as a “green jobs” company funded by Obama’s 2009 stimulus. Today, Serious Energy is closing factories and laying off workers--and the Federal Trade Commission has found it made false claims about the energy efficiency of its products.

The story of Serious Energy is a metaphor for Obama’s political career, featuring strong-arm union tactics, corrupt Chicago politicians, crony capitalism, and media propaganda. Back in May 2010, it was already clear that Serious Energy was a fiasco, one Breitbart News called the “Weatherization Undergound.” Two years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the company is near the end of its natural trajectory as an Obama prop.

Read the whole thing.

All the oil in the world.

Production from the Alberta oil sands are changing the petroleum industry . . . but that resource is dwarfed by the potential of oil shale. The US has more energy available in its oil shale alone than the entire global reserves of conventional oil. This is on top of the trillion cubic feet of natural gas and the world’s largest reserves of coal.