2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumCoal Is Dying, But Hillary Clinton Has A Plan To Save Coal Communities
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/12/3721674/hillary-coal-plan/
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Today we are in the midst of a global energy transition, the Plan For Revitalizing Coal Communities says, citing the rise of natural gas and renewable energy. We cant ignore the impact this transition is already having on mining communities, or the threat it poses to the healthcare and retirement security of coalfield workers and their families.
Clintons plan calls for $30 billion towards infrastructure improvements, mine land remediation, training and education programs, and incentives for business investment in Appalachia, the Illinois Basin, and the Western coal areas.
What I like about this plan is that its multi-faceted, Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, a West Virginia-based environmental consulting firm, told ThinkProgress. There is no one solution.
Hansen pointed to education, for example. While many people in coal communities need training and education that will make them more attractive employees, training the workforce alone is not enough. The areas also need to bolster the businesses that will hire people, Hansen said, and that means improving standard of living in order to attract new investment. Clintons plan includes both infrastructure and broadband improvements....more
jfern
(5,204 posts)Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)The plan here is about how to help these areas transition out of it in all the complicated ways that it requires. Which can't be translated down to a fancy slogan.
elleng
(130,933 posts)as hrc seems to have done, that the effects on coal communities must be addressed; lots of people live there.
Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)There's so much potential in moving these communities forward with the right investments.
elleng
(130,933 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Everywhere we went they were super suspicious of me and my wife. Some guy at a gas station started trying to berate me for Washington plates on my car. When I walked up to his truck, he rolled up his window and locked his door and refused to look at me. When I looked around at other people there, they would shy away. Afterward I was sitting in the car looking at a map, and the gas station attendant lady came out and asked why we hadn't left yet.
It was weird. I can't imagine taking a vacation there.
elleng
(130,933 posts)visited the capitol where a festival of sorts was going on, and a good restaurant on the way out of the state.
Daughter attended college there too, a pretty positive experience.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)Why would anybody have a problem with that?
Armstead
(47,803 posts)What would be even better would be to work to make W Va a center for manufacturing of solar cells and other alternative technologies. The symbolism of that would be great.
elleng
(130,933 posts)Challenging, considering the geography, but GOOD challenges, imo.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)The have very low education.
Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Entire families brought up to dig dirt out of the ground. One worker caring for an entire family. And now with renewable energy gaining traction they are being boxed into a corner.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)can be trained in jobs for clean energy. We just need some venture capitalists to take a chance on them and begin building industries in their areas. Since you folks smear Hillary for her connections to Wall Street don't be surprised if she uses those connections to further her ideas for investing in undeserved communities across the nation. She can be very convincing in this area and the capitalists will try wherever they see an opportunity to make a profit.
GO HILLARY!!!
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)Wall St WON'T invest in rural communities.
They lack the technical training, infrastructure.
There is no PROFIT to be made for venture capitalists.
Quit dreaming.
Hillary won't save rural communities.
jmowreader
(50,559 posts)They just don't call it that.
If the Republicans get their way, health insurance companies will be able to sell policies across state lines. It'll take the insurance companies about two seconds to figure out the state line they want to sell it across is the one where they can charge the most. Not surprisingly, it's West Virginia.
Do you realize how many people it's gonna take to process premium payments and deny claims? In West Virginia they'll find all the help they need.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Gee, could there be a correlation?
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)To what should we abandon the miners and their communities after the use of coal has passed, as it should.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Tax coal big time. How else do we raise 30 billion?
I think Hillary thinks of coal country as a possible base. CC sure does hate socialism and Obama. Why do they hate Obama?
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)even when he is trying to help them.
We give up on these people. Their "education" ought to begin with us, the Dems. They need to know that their Social Security IS a government program (they probably have been told otherwise). They need to know how tax dollars work FOR them when they have been struck by natural disasters. They need to feel that their government cares about them and who in the government has their back.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)The fact that you think they don't
know Social Security is a Govt.
program belies your assertion.
It's 2015.
If they don't know who or what the
government is or does, that's a bigger
problem than Hillary can fix.
And, your assertion that they need to
"feel their government cares about them"
seems a bit paternalistic?
And , the govt doesn't love anyone,
it's an institution
This is a *we the people* operation.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Wilms
(26,795 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)whites and use them voting or combat fodder. Now if only the Clinton campaign is sharp enough to carry that message in person to these people BEFORE the GOP smears her more in those areas. They really should hire some folks from those areas to carry the message as well.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)change and refusal to learn anything new. Rust.
Appalachia isn't any more special than other areas of the country that have been hit hard by automation and other technologies. And some of the same plans could be modified to help out those areas as well.
But living in the past and refusing to get into a life boat because it isn't a yacht makes no sense to me.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)The DLC came into being because the south did well economically across the late 70s and thereby gained power.
The one southern Gov. didn't destroy the Rust Belt, it was the pattern of jobs going south across Dixie.
The south looked pretty special in contrast to northern cities which were teetering on bankruptcy, like NYC, or were losing industry to southern cities was pretty obvious.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)We need to give them a financial reason to support a green economy.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)well, aside from Hillary's Wall st cronies.
The casino capitalists are doing fine.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)Southern California, where I live, has had a dramatic turnaround, thanks to our Dem governor. Of course it is not enough, but we have come a long way since 2009.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)And by what metric
do you judge such theories?
If our economy appears strong
it's because the EU and China
are on the brink of disaster.
Once one piece fails it's over for everyone.
pretending to be the *strongest economy*
won't avert disaster.
An actual *strong economy* would.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)pfft
Cha
(297,269 posts)Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)Combined with parts of his plan to restructure our fuel sources to renewable.
Except, if memory serves, he proposed 1 trillion.
bobbobbins01
(1,681 posts)Slapped coal miners on it to score points, and called it a day.
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)It's not pandering. It's essential. What a sad day it is that so-called progressives call that pandering. Meanwhile, people here defend immunity for gun corporations, votes against gun control, and votes for the Minutemen because apparently that's what a real "progressive" does rather than worry about Americans having jobs.
Those states are likely to remain red, but it doesn't mean their lives don't matter. As much as you might want the "revolution" to focus only on those who live in neighborhoods with schools good enough to prepare them for the "free" college provided by the taxes of workers you resent attention being paid to, not all Americans are so fortunate.
Something is seriously wrong when you object to jobs programs for American workers.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)Nuance is important. There are so many levels to policy, budgeting, and legislating which are not being understood.
bobbobbins01
(1,681 posts)I'm all for it. I'm just pointing out that it is similar. She's like P Diddy, she invented the remix.
frylock
(34,825 posts)#metoo
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Because he proposed it first.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)BainsBane
(53,032 posts)There was a stimulus. It brought the country back from the brink of economic collapse, created a bunch of construction jobs so that we now have the lowest unemployment rate in over 20 years. However, it was not nearly as extensive as hoped because of congress, the same congress Bernie would have to get legislation through. The Constitution doesn't miraculous change because a new president is elected. The same constitutional limitations apply, which is why proposing $1 trillion for infrastructure, free college, or any of those other sweeping promises you all are so smitten with means exactly nada. At least the House if not the Senate too will remain GOP, regardless of who wins the nomination.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)and the unemployment numbers are bogus.
We have unemployed no longer counted.
Under-employment is epidemic.
And TPP is guaranteed to send
millions of jobs over seas.
No, it's not working because
the 1% is still hording wealth
and far to many people can't
make ends meet.
Reality.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)bogus...not.
I like her plan for families and communities of coal miners...it is really a targeted stimulus plan down at the grassroots level directed at people, not corporations as so many here complain about. AND remember, these people will not likely vote for Hillary and they hate Obama. So, to me, it's a plan to try to sincerely reach real people. She is going to be criticized for another government program costing tax dollars...but let that come from the GOP, not us. Even Rand Paul has not come up with a plan to help his own constituents.
I am satisfied that this is the first plan from any of the candidates that targets the real needs of people who are often marginalized, ignored, and looked down upon. They have been told to despise her and Obama and most Dems. They believe what they are told but this will be a new message for them to consider and hopefully something good will come of it once a Dem gets elected. Whatever her reasons, isn't enough that a plan has been put forth to actually help people?
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)Her plan is to convince people she has a *plan*.
There are NO JOBS coming.
There is no capital investments coming.
The economy is not improving for the 99%
Hillary is pandering to a community
that is starting to realize they are living
a way of life tied to the 19th century.
sweetapogee
(1,168 posts)The truth of the matter is that there are about 92 million workers out of the work force. Add that to the 5% unemployment figure and look out.
Another truth is that there simply are not enough voters in the coal fields to get any kind of plan going. Their voices will be drowned out by the masses in the large metro areas who also want a slice of the pie.
Sorry if I offend anyone but that is the reality of the thing.