6th paragraph, coal tax = gas tax?

Fixed.

grist.org

What they should have done BEFORE now is treat this issue as seriously as it is.  People in West Virginia and Kentucky know the times are changing, recognize the gravity, and naturally are anxious about it.  This is not a peripheral, side-bar issue.  It features the constellation of social, labor, and enviromental issues that must be addressed.  Tossing in a vague mixed message about coal's future is ridiculous when the constituents are painfully aware they live at ground zero.  Between MTR and lack of jobs, West Virginians are weary of sacrificing for the rest of the country and consistently, historically, being viewed as an afterthought.  Politicians have been no friend to the persons of WV(a friend of coal, yes).

In "that means "green jobs," but more than just that. It means stimulating the development of other industries and revenue sources by spending on infrastructure, education, public works programs, and a decent social safety net." you imply that green jobs are just one small part of an economic and energy transformation.  You're correct that what's needed is a vision for investment, infrastructure and revitalization in all areas of life.  

What struck me is that 'green jobs' seems to try and encompass all those things and really be a vision for a rising tide that lifts all boats, and the lowest boats first.  If the idea of green jobs is just a footnote as part of some larger vision for the transformation we're talking about, then we need to work hard to give that vision a name that we don't need to put in quotation marks and we can talk about to the people of WV and KY.

Dave, you tend to run on a bit longer than your message requires.  Senator Clinton may not be all things to all people but she has been a good and hard-working Senator and poltician.  The baggage she carries is not all of her doing.

Cut her a bit of slack.  She earned that much!

John McCormick

Now that Barack looks like a sure winner, why not give the Clinton bashing a break?  Time to make peace and get Hillary for VP.  If possible.

Coal unemployment problems could be solved with natural gas development in coal country, hiring local miners into the gas drilling industry.

There is a lot of gas in the coal already, using natural bacteria to increae the conversion of coal to gas.  That's a real clean coal technology.  And good jobs providing clean energy for miners.  They already operate heavy drilling equipment in mining.

They can adapt.  Government ought to help with retraining funding.  That's a plan miners and businesses in coal country could back as well as environmentalists.  A lot of the methane from mines is escaping now, causing a huge GHG problem.  As much of it as possible should be used for clean energy.

Barack ought to campaign on that, and energy conservation and renewable energy for local homes, schools, and buildings.

Along with a big switch to geo heat exchange heating replacing the use of natural gas in heating buildings, the increased gas supply from coal could make it a viable replacement for diesel powered trucks and trains.  Natural gas runs fine in diesel engines.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Being a KY resident, I am firmly convinced that Obama knows he doesn't have any chance to win KY or WV in November, whereas Hillary would most likely win both states in a general election against McCain as they voted Democratic both times Bill Clinton won the White House; therefore Obama is most likely to ignore KY and WV in the primary and general election...and unfortunately, if he does win the White House in 2008, he will most likely do nothing to help the people living in either state during his four or eight year presidency.  If Hillary Clinton doesn't win the nomination, moderate to conservative  middle class Americans, whether Democrat or Republican, will have no one fighting for them in Washington.  Unfortunately, the Democratic Party abandoned moderate and conservative Americans long before Ronald Reagan, starting with the George McGovern nomination in 1972.  The only Democratic presidential nominee since 1972 to even bothering to appeal to the moderate middle class was Bill Clinton, and his own Democratic Party abandoned him abandoned him during his two terms in office. Anything Obama says to voters in KY and WV will have no effect, because he doesn't identify with our needs.

for Obama, and whoever ran against Rockefeller, that traitor to the Constitution.
I get pretty angry at the way the MSM portrays the coal issue here--neglecting to mention what should have been obvious at the Obama rally a month ago, that the coal issue is contentious here, with plenty of passion on BOTH sides.  There are only 16,000 coal miners in WV now, and only 5500 of them are strip miners. Longwall mining is less destructive than mountaintop removal mining, but it still destroys water sources and homes it passes under. I agree that Obama blew an opportunity to reach out here with an honest message, centering on a "just transition" plank of renewable energy production jobs earmarked for former miners. But I don't think it's because he "doesn't care about the working class"--I think it's because his campaign's calculations showed he can only risk alienating so much of the Big Money interests. I support him largely on the forlorn hope that he'll turn out to be more than what he claims--that once he's in office he'll be in a position to challenge the corporations more directly. With Clinton or McCain we clearly get Business as Usual, and we CANNOT tolerate more of that--literally are unlikely even to survive it. The way Clintons have run her campaign is utterly contemptible.