Bipartisan group announces SOAR: Shaping Our Appalachian Region summit to generate ideas about Appalachia’s economic future...

Governor Steve Beshear and Representative Hal Rogers announced yesterday the creation of a new Appalachian economic transition initiative: SOAR, or Shaping Our Appalachian Region. Read more about the announcement from The Rural Blog. The initiative will culminate in a regional summit on December 9 in Pikeville. This effort will be designed to generate ideas about what to do to help Appalachia’s struggling economy transition into the future. A committee of about 40 members – mostly coming from the private sector, education and government, with some from nonprofit organizations – has started planning meetings. The committee will meet once more in November before the SOAR summit. The SOAR effort is working closely with the Rural Policy Research Institute. “This is the beginning of a process,” Beshear said of the Dec. 9 summit. “It’s not a one-time event designed to produce a magic formula, because there are no magic formulas. . . . what will come of this, to be honest with you, we’re not sure. . . . To be successful, the people of Appalachia, the people of Appalachia, must step up and take ownership and responsibility for their own future.” To register for the Dec. 9 SOAR Summit, click here....

MACED releases new report; calls for creation of economic development planning body...

In a report released today, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) calls for the creation of the Appalachian Planning and Development Fund (ADPF), a planning body that would create and develop an economic development plan for eastern Kentucky and oversee effective and efficient disbursement of coal severance tax dollars in the region. "Now is a critical time for eastern Kentucky to develop a comprehensive plan to diversify the region’s economy and create a robust economic future,” the report reads. “To generate the best ideas for economic transition, to promote coordination among efforts throughout the region and to ensure broad participations among the region’s people and communities, the state should develop . . .  the APDF.” The report says the APDF would: Build on the region’s assets, help communities engage in their own planning and guide severance tax and other expenditures Provide a structure for exploring development strategies that have worked elsewhere and those already working in the region, and promote those strategies Make decisions based on input from a diverse set of voices in eastern Kentucky Better guide coal severance spending, as well as those dollars deposited into a permanent fund Eastern Kentuckian’s economic opportunities have been at the mercy of those holding the purse strings for decades, enduring the promise of jobs and prosperity for the region with incoming industries and factories, only to watch mere years later as those industries and factories leave town when tax incentives dry up. It’s time that eastern Kentuckians have a...

Harvesting Appalachia’s Future: Developing an Agriculture Sector...

Todd Howard, Floyd County farmer and community leader, said it best at the Appalachia’s Bright Future conference in April: that the only thing Appalachians have done longer than mine coal, is farm. It is true that agriculture has a deep and rich history in the region, and we believe it could help transition the region’s economy into the future. There’s already a cattle farm on a former mountaintop mining site, and with the Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer working hard to recreate an industrial hemp market in the state, it seems we aren’t the only ones thinking agriculture should be a part of Appalachia’s economic transition. As the Hazard Herald put it: “There is no shortage of reasons as to why we should be building a much more robust agriculture economy in Eastern Kentucky. Put simply, there exists a need for it.” The paper says all the flat land left over from old mining operations could be turned into “agriculture hot spots” with a little reclamation work, and more importantly, diversify the local economy. In any case, eastern Kentucky’s economy is backed against a wall right now. It will take many different economic sectors working together to help the region walk away from that wall. Since Appalachia’s had a longer relationship with farming than almost anything else, we should reconnect with those agrarian roots and start planting seeds of economic opportunity from which we will harvest a much brighter future.  (Grow Appalachia photo by Traviss...

Use Abandoned Mine Lands funds for economic development in Appalachia...

Back in August, we made the case for using Abandoned Mine Lands funds to put laid-off coal miners back to work reclaiming former mine sites in eastern Kentucky. The fund currently contains about $2.5 billion, which could provide immediate relief for a group of folks whom we believe could stand to benefit from a job that would feed their souls as well as their families. There’s been another suggestion for the AML funds recently that we think should gain traction as well. Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford has proposed expansion of the uses of AML funds to include infrastructure and economic development. Right now, the fund, which comes from taxes on mined coal, can only be used to help mitigate and alleviate environmental damage on former mined lands. In a letter to President Obama, Representative Hal Rogers, and the U.S. Congressional delegations from Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia, Rutherford “implores them to ‘work to free up this vital AML money, not to spend recklessly or indulgently, but to reinvest responsibly in our coal counties.’” He continued: Now, and with haste, we must act and invest if we are to reclaim Central Appalachia’s future for our people. The leadership here has the passion and commitment to save our economy and tomorrows. We need understanding, cooperation and a viable plan in order to succeed. It will take significant investment in order for Central Appalachia to act on strategies to diversify its economy and transition into a brighter future. The AML...

Appalachia needs strong leaders

The Hazard Herald of Hazard, Ky., wanted to know in this editorial where the leadership in Frankfort has beenhiding while coal jobs in eastern Kentuckycontinue dropping, leaving thousands out of work without viable alternative opportunities. "We don’t know what Gov. Beshear has up his sleeve, or how much he had to do with any of the positive job creation we’re seeing in other parts of the state, but he can’t expect to put his name on those successes while washing his hands of the declining economy in Eastern Kentucky. We’re hearing next to nothing from Frankfort about creating a new economy beyond coal. We need a new vision." We agree that the region does need a new vision, and it seems like it will come from within before those without will take action. The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development has recently developed what could be a good series of steps folks in the region could take to create a new vision to diversify the economy and move the region forward into a bright future. You can read a bit about their plan in this editorial from MACED’s Executive Director, Justin Maxson. Basically, they give four strategies: Better support local entrepreneurs and enterprises. Grow key sectors that build on Central Appalachia’s great assets. Provide workers with financial support, retraining and job matching tied to growing sectors. Better invest financial resources already available, and actively search for more. They say these four strategies should be supported by increased conversation about the issues...