Grimes, McConnell Fighting Tooth And Nail For Vital Coal Sector That Provides .06% Of KY Jobs

[hatrack]

Coal has been an ever-present part of one of the most expensive and high profile midterm elections this year—the Kentucky Senate race between Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes—despite its rapidly declining economic significance.

Kentucky's newspapers and airwaves are full of ads from both candidates pledging to protect the industry and fight the Environmental Protect Agency's attempts to regulate its carbon emissions. Each candidates' statements have become popular political fodder for attack ads by SuperPACs on both sides of the aisle. As one local news channel put it, coal "has become the hot issue in the country's hottest political contest."

But the industry that Grimes and McConnell have spent so much time and money fighting over is a bit of an illusion, several experts said. Coal has been dying for decades within Kentucky. Production has plummeted in recent years, dropping 11.8 percent in 2013 to 80.5 million tons, the lowest level since 1963. The number of coal workers dropped from more than 75,000 in the 1940s to 11,885 in 2013. The state lost 2,222 mining jobs in 2013 alone. Coal currently makes up only .06 percent of Kentucky's total employment.

"Coal is iconic in Kentucky," said Al Cross, an expert on state politics and a journalism professor at the University of Kentucky. "Most people don't realize how small a part of the economy it actually is. If you ask someone in eastern Kentucky, they'll probably say it accounts for 10 percent. But in reality, it is less than 1 percent.”

EDIT

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20141008/coal-fired-politics-kentucky-senate-race-bitter-rivals-woo-dying-industry

[get the red out]

1. It is a result of perception

It is perceived to be all important in this state, the epitome of the "working man", so you see cars everywhere with "Friends of Coal" license plates, even in areas where there are no coal jobs at all.

The coal companies have also run a massive publicity campaign about their importance to the state, it seems that they have almost taken over the identity of the state. COAL!!!!! And oh yea, horses and basketball are here too.

Big money = Big lies.

[FBaggins]

2. Someone's math is terrible.

If 12,000 workers is .06% of KY's employment... then there are 20 million workers in the state.

Yet the population of the state is well under five million.

So the author is probably off by an order of magnitude. Also... that only counts direct emploment in mining. Recent estimates of total jobs impacted by the industry is closer to 70,000

Grimes is no idiot. Those are largely people who would tend to lean Democrat... as long as they don't think you're going to cost them their jobs.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Ky. politicians fend off climate questions

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/12/climate-change-kentucky-election/17160695/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Ky. politicians fend off climate questions[/font]

Scott Wartman, The Cincinnati Enquirer 5:53 p.m. EDT October 12, 2014

[font size=3]CINCINNATI — If you believe NASA, 97% of climate scientists agree mankind is the cause for earth's changing environment.

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In Kentucky's high-profile Senate race, however, it's not so simple.

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Coal has completely obscured the climate-change debate in Kentucky, said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community at the University of Kentucky.

"Here you've got a planetary issue, an issue that could affect the lives of most of the people on the planet in an adverse way, and the people of Kentucky don't hear a thing about it," Cross said. "Both candidates are so wrapped around the coal industry."

…[/font][/font]