Making Connections Report on Transition Discussion

The great folks at WMMT's Making Connections have produced a terrific radio piece on the transition conversation at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference: One conference session engaged participants in discussion of a number of possibilities for the region's economic and social future, including the establishment of permanent severance tax funds to support economic transition in the coalfields, Helen Lewis’s vision of “a clean glass of water for every Appalachian child,” shifting economic development strategies away from the traditional model of industrial recruitment, and many, many other ideas. Click here to...

Near-Zero Energy Homes Built in Appalachian Kentucky

Some families in Whitley County, KY can look forward to staying comfortable through the hot summer without paying high utility bills – or no utility bills at all. The Lexington Herald-Leader ran a story yesterday about a "passive house" project, which aims to have net zero energy use through a combination of efficient building practices and solar power. For folks who struggle to pay their bills each month, having one less to pay can make a huge difference. "We're going to be able to buy things we couldn't normally buy because of this," said one new homeowner quoted in the article. The article points out that It costs more to build to passive house standards than to conventional codes. However, the investment pays off through lower energy bills, said Ginger Watkins, sustainable building specialist with Kentucky Habitat for Humanity….   Watkins said the electric bill last winter at a Habitat house in the Morehead area built with passive-house standards was $15 a month. Whitley County is home to this project because its electricity is provided by the TVA, which buys the solar power the homeowners create through its innovative "Generation Partners" program. Most of Appalachia doesn't have that option. Even so, according to the article, "U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, who spoke at a dedication for the near zero-energy development in Whitley County last week, said the houses are a 'harbinger of the...

Charleston Gazette on Coal Decline

It seems like more and more folks are realizing that the drop-off in Central Appalachian coal production is about economics. The Charleston Gazette's editorial board is the latest to address the issue on the heels of the West Virginia Coal Forum, which put the blame on the EPA. "This is your tax dollars at work," the editorial stated, "staging rallies to blame the federal administration for a shift in the economy that only marginally involves rules against toxic pollution."  The real issue, as many of us know, is the staggeringly low price of natural gas, coupled with a fleet of very old, expensive-to-maintain coal-fired power plants. Even the president of American Electric Power is quoted in the editorial saying, "Nobody is building any new coal. The economics just aren't there. Gas is just so cheap…. I don't think anybody is going to build a coal plant, given natural gas prices. It's just economics." And those old coal plants? “They’re just so old that it doesn’t make sense to spend the money to make them comply with the existing rules. Under any scenario you looked at, regardless of EPA rules, all those plants were gone anyway.”  So where does this leave coalfield communities? The Gazette believes that we must start looking toward the future: "Someday, West Virginians may look back and see today as a transition period, when the same ruthless economic forces that led to the rise of coal, altered life again in the Mountain State. "The question is not...

End Your Week on a Uplifting Note

This must-watch video from the Appalachian Funders' Network profiles some of the wonderful work happening in the region. A great lead-in to a long...

Business plan competition for Eastern KY coalfields

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:   Alltech announces job-creation competition By Tom Eblen —   Alltech announced a job-creation competition Tuesday for business students at the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and University of Pikeville, with a $20,000 prize for the winning school.   Pearse Lyons, president and founder of the Nicholasville-based animal nutrition company, said the business plan competition is focused on fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development in nine Eastern Kentucky counties: Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin and Pike.   "It's time to balance the scales and cultivate a Kentucky that leads the nation not just in college sports but in employment as well," Lyons said, noting that many of the targeted counties have unemployment rates twice the national average.   "With its hardworking people, vibrant culture, picturesque landscape and abundance of natural resources, Kentucky is ripe for the right idea," Lyons said. "What we need is innovation and inspiration — sparks that will kindle the economic flame."   Lyons announced the competition during a free seminar on entrepreneurship in the state that he and veteran Kentucky entrepreneur Jim Host put on at Lexington Center. It attracted a capacity crowd of more than 400 people, including many Central Kentucky business leaders.   The seminar was held in conjunction with Alltech's 28th annual International Symposium, which each spring brings a couple thousand of the company's customers here from all over the world.   Officials at each university will choose a competition team from among...

Editorial: Ky. seams diminishing, we need to plan new economy...

Here's a great op-ed from Rick Clewett, from Sunday's Lexington Herald-Leader: Over the past few months, a handful of coal mines in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia have closed. It is clear that this is not a blip on the radar but part of a regional trend. Several studies have indicated that the amount of coal mined in Eastern Kentucky has fallen off considerably in the last several years and that the amount of coal mined in the region will continue to fall. Thus, the Energy Information Agency released a draft report in January stating that, "The share of domestic coal production originating from mines in the West increases from 47 percent in 2010 to 56 percent in 2035, and the Appalachian share declines from 39 percent to 29 percent during the same period, with most of the decline occurring by 2020." There are several reasons for Appalachian coal’s recent and projected decline besides the economic downturn. First, the market has been flooded with cheap and plentiful natural gas, a supply that is forecasted to continue for decades. Second, the available coal seams in Eastern Kentucky are getting smaller and more expensive to mine. Coal companies mined the easy and rich seams long ago and have been increasingly going back to mine thinner and less accessible seams. For this kind of mining to be profitable, the price of Appalachian coal needs to remain high, but it has been trending downward. Appalachian coal is relatively expensive low-sulfur coal that used...

Good News on Rural Broadband

Nicole Palya Wood at the Daily Yonder has the story of federal efforts to expand broadband to rural areas: In the absence of controversy, even significant actions can slip by without much public notice.  Let me share the good news. I am pleased to report that thanks to a $300 million fund set up by the Federal Communications Commission, a lot more Americans in rural communities are a step closer to broadband service on mobile phones. While Americans in cities and suburbs have been snapping up high-powered smartphones at a breathtaking pace and using them for a widening array of mobile and online activity, people who live in many small rural communities are lucky to get a good enough connection for a phone call.    For a variety of economic reasons, high-end service simply isn’t reaching many remote and lightly populated communities. So, the FCC has set up a Universal Service Mobility Fund to help start filling those gaps – and this week it announced an aggressive schedule for making it all happen.   The FCC is going to run so-called “reverse auctions,” in which the low-bidder in designated communities will receive government funds for setting up service. By defraying some of the extra expense of serving remote communities, the government aims to draw experienced private sector wireless companies to begin offering reliable, high-speed wireless services.   Be sure to visit the link for the full article. As we've discussed many times before, broadband access in Appalachia is critically...

Farmers Markets Growing in West Virginia

After an unusually warm winter, many farmers are seeing early harvests of many spring crops. This is good news both for the farmers and for their customers at Farmers' Markets which are beginning to open across the region. The Charleston Gazette posted a piece, "Farmers markets increasing in state," earlier this month, exploring the growth of WV's markets, which have tripled in the past 10 years to around 80.  "Ultimately I think people like markets because they can talk to the farmer, know if they use chemicals and put a face to their source of local fresh food," said [Larry] Lower, president of the Berkeley Springs Farmers Market. "With this whole green movement, people wanted healthy food by supporting local communities so people jumped on the bandwagon." According to a recent article in BusinessWeek, consumers are spending $1 billion (yes, that's billion) a year at the over 7,000 farmers' markets across the U.S. This is good news for local farms in Appalachia, and a program run by the West Virginia Farmers' Market Association, the West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition, and the West Virginia Community Development Hub will help more farmers' markets capitalize on this opportunity. According to the Gazette article, the program will "will provide training and networking opportunities as well as business planning support to 10 selected markets" in order to "find a more substantial way for communities who want to set up markets to improve their methods." To learn more about the program and find out...