Silicon Heartland by Rebecca A. Fannin

Author:Rebecca A. Fannin [Fannin, Rebecca A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2023-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

The Coal Burnout

My visit to Huntington and Morgantown was full of positives, but the reality of West Virginia’s economic condition can’t be ignored. The state is actively moving into the digital age, its recent GDP quarterly growth of 7.3 percent is ranked tenth in the nation, and its unemployment rate of 3.6 percent is better than nationwide figures. But its core economic base lags behind. It is the nation’s second-largest coal producer after Wyoming, but mining has declined steadily over the last twenty-five years, with an increasing shift toward renewable energy and a rise in use of lower-cost natural gas obtained by fracking.[66]

The state’s revival has a lot of work ahead to reverse the negative economic indicators. Consider:

Despite political claims of “the beauty of West Virginia coal” in campaign rallies, in 2018 the state was producing roughly half its output in 2008, while mining employment had fallen 40 percent to 14,000.[67] This drop-off reflected a similar downward trend nationwide,[68] with Appalachia bearing the brunt of the decline.[69]

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