Open Letter to Joe Manchin
Joe,
Here’s how to serve your constituency…
· Provide funding to:
Help train younger coal workers to meet the challenges of the inevitable loss of coal-related job opportunities by providing funding for same through the Build Back Better Act. (It’s an easy sell, and all Democrats will buy into it.)
Negotiate with Democrats to provide funding for coal workers everywhere (not just West Virginia) to: (1) Help offset income loss as coal-related opportunities disappear; and (2) Treat diseases like black lung that devastate so many of your state’s mine workers.
· Educate your constituency regarding:
The inevitability of the loss of coal-related opportunities in the near future as it gets phased out in favor of clean energy sources;
The positive health gains of switching to clean energy sources; and
The actual economic risks and rewards, in real numbers, related to our government’s ability to pay for the cost of real gains for your constituents and others.
Here’s how to help yourself…
· Begin to convert your fossil fuel investments to clean energy investments and encourage others, especially your constituents, to do the same.
· Let your constituents know that it is in their best interests to prepare for a future of no coal, even while they continue to work in the coal industry to support their families. The future of no-coal is inevitable. It’s simply unrealistic to think that we can continue in the ways that grandpa and great grandpa did. Those folks sacrificed for their families and helped energize our nation. That’s good, but that’s the past. We need to look to the future.
· Let your constituency know that you care about them enough to risk negative propaganda by doing all of the above.
The “Build Back Better” Act is good for West Virginia and for the nation — maybe not enough, but certainly a step forward. The bill is about much more than serving coal miners, but it can be about that too if you do it right. “Doing it right” requires much more than public complaining. Every Republican legislator is willing to sabotage something great for our nation in order to keep their jobs. Please stop helping them and start helping the people who elected you.