You raise a very good question. But I think we can, must and have a timely opportunity to move forward and bring together those who will listen to reason.

Timing is right as we move closer to the 2016 election cycle. Such an effort, educating the electorate through memberships of the organizations I outline below is an opportunity that we should explore.

I would like to suggest that a few of us get together to brainstorm an approach.

The plan I have in mind would be to pull together in the same room a group of the organizational leadership around the state that could in fact educate their membership and make a difference but also profit from the transition away from coal fired power.

I'm thinking about the UMW. Miners are steadily being laid off and re-training them into the renewable energy fields should/could be appealing to the UMW leadership if presented as a positive opportunity.

Similarly, I would pull together the construction trades, both Union people and industry people. Building renewable energy systems in the state will create jobs in those fields.

I'd go to the chambers of commerce with suggestions of the potential for small business growth such as B.C. has experienced since they put a carbon tax in place in 2005. It's a remarkable story of economic growth.

And that province in Canada has a lot of similarities to West Virginia. It is heavily mountainous, many of its towns can only be reached by sea, it has had a heavy dependence on the extraction industries, (not coal), and forestry. But it is developing a very diverse economy and has seen economic growth since they introduced a carbon tax.

My vision is to begin a State wide effort to educate the citizens on the opportunities of addressing climate change, not promoting nailing the coffin of coal. That's happening already and does not need our help.

What I do see is an opportunity to bring labour and business leaders together, and maybe with progressive business leaders to talk about a unified effort to embrace, and profit from, and create jobs within the State by encouraging, incentivizing and moving more rapidly the inevitable transition to renewable energy.

It's going to take some funding to do this. And I believe it requires a new independent non profit organization funded by all those I mention above, and by the environmental organizations, to be a fully independent, representing all interested sections of the population, (well except the coal companies, shareholders and executives), but a focused educational organization.

And I believe there are national foundations, like Kaufman that would support this job creating focus.

When and where can we get together to discuss and develop an action plan? I would suggest Charleston as most of the above are HQ'd here.

On Mar 2, 2015, at 7:12 PM, Harriet Nelson <glnelson1@frontier.com> wrote:

Who would we talk with? A dieing coal industry does not want us nailing their coffin.

----- Original Message -----

From: James Kotcon

To: ec@osenergy.org

Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 4:23 PM

Subject: [EC] Fwd: [Coal Volunteers List] from ScienceDaily e-newsletter: Climate science literacy unrelated to public acceptance of human-caused global warming

This is a pretty important article for those of us trying to engage our neighbors and communities on climate change. We have a tendency to think of our opponents as scientifically challenged (to put it mildly), but these data show that opponents of climate action are at least as knowledgeable of what climate scientists think as climate action supporters. After 20+ years of hearing about it, they know the scientific arguments, but the problem is that they view it through the lens of protecting their values and culture. Many opponents view this as an issue of Big Government taking away their communities. The author cites the interesting example of South Florida, where local groups developed a local action plan to protect against rising sea levels. When communities come together to work out how to solve local problems, even the Republicans want to use sound science.

I suggest we need to use this concept to develop plans for climate action in West Virginia that avoid debates over global issues. Instead, our focus needs to be on how West Virginia communities can adapt to the changes ahead. The vast majority of West Virginians both support the coal industry, and know that it is declining. The vast majority also pay electric bills, and know that electric rates are going up. And almost all political leaders know that the state budget will face a really big hole as coal severance taxes decline. If we can get a conversation going about solutions to these problems, instead of getting hung up on an "Us versus Them" mentality, we may get some traction.

Whaddya Tink?

Jim Kotcon

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 8:17 AM
Subject: [Coal Volunteers List] from ScienceDaily e-newsletter: Climate science literacy unrelated to public acceptance of human-caused global warming
To: Resilient Habitats Listserve <CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS@lists.sierraclub.org>, Coal Alerts <coal-volunteers-list@sierraclub.org>

Climate science literacy unrelated to public acceptance of human-caused global warming

Posted: 24 Feb 2015 05:38 AM PST

Deep public divisions over climate change are unrelated to differences in how well ordinary citizens understand scientific evidence on global warming. Indeed, members of the public who score the highest on a climate-science literacy test are the most politically polarized on whether human activity is causing global temperatures to rise.

--

Paul Wilson

Sierra Club Military Outings

Project Healing Waters Fly-fishing
504 Jefferson Ave
Charles Town, WV 25414-1130
Phone: 304-725-4360
Cell: 304-279-1361

"There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

JUSTICE, ONLY JUSTICE, SHALT THOU PURSUE. Deuteronomy 16:20

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