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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2017
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
Georgia shows why the coal
industry is dying
BY TOM CRAWFORD
Donald Trump promised throughout his presidential
campaign that he would single-handedly halt the decline of
the nation’s coal industry and bring back lost jobs for coal
miners.
“We’re going to put our miners back to work,” he said at
numerous rallies. “The miners go back to work.”
Trump said he could reverse this downward trend by
reversing the environmental regulations on the use of coal
that were proposed during Barack Obama’s administration.
The most visible sign of the president’s intentions was a
news conference held last week in Hazard, Ky, in the heart
of the nation’s coal mining region.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced that the department was rejecting Obama’s Clean
Power Plan that would have required utilities to reduce the
amount of greenhouse gases emitted through the burning of
coal by their power plants.
“The war on coal is over,” said EPA Director Scott Pmitt, a
global warming denier.
The “war on coal” as described by Trump and Pmitt may
indeed be over, but the coal industry is still in a steep decline,
with job numbers sinking to all-time lows. Even supporters of
coal acknowledge that those old mining jobs probably aren’t
coming back.
Where the coal industry employed about 250,000 people in
the 1970s, the number of coal jobs today is estimated at less
than 70,000.
By contrast, the retail chain CostCo employs 143,000 people
in its U.S. stores, more than twice the number who work in
coal mines - and CostCo employees don’t have to worry
about getting black lung disease.
Robert Murray is the founder and chief executive of Murray
Energy, the largest privately held coal company in the
country. He is a Tmmp supporter and likes what the president
is doing to roll back Obama’s clean power regulations, but he
conceded that there is not likely to be a big upsurge in new
coal mining jobs.
“I suggested that he [Tmmp] temper his expectations.
Those are my exact words,” said Murray. “He can’t bring
them [coal mining jobs] back.”
Some of the president’s top policy people have the same
view.
“Coal doesn’t even make that much sense anymore,”
Gary Cohn, Tmmp’s chief economic adviser, told reporters
recently.
Cohn was referring to the factor that more than anything
else has killed coal: the low price of natural gas made
possible by the widespread practice of fracking. Natural gas
is a little cleaner and cheaper to burn than coal, so electric
utilities have increasingly been choosing gas over coal.
We can see that happening in Georgia with the state’s
largest utility, the Georgia Power Co.
At one time, Georgia Power generated about 70 percent
of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. Today, the
portion of power generation from coal is about 30 percent.
Over the last seven years, Georgia Power has shut down 15
of its coal-fired generation facilities: five units at Plant Yates,
four units at Plant Branch, three units at Plant Kraft, two units
at Plant McDonough, and one unit at Plant Mitchell.
Additionally, Georgia Power has converted two coal-fired
power generation units at Plant Yates from coal to natural gas.
When I asked a company spokesman if Georgia Power
planned to re-open any of those de-commissioned facilities
now that the Tmmp administration has declared the “war on
coal” is over, this was his terse answer: “No.”
Georgia Power is just one of many utilities making this
decision. Since 2010, nearly half of the country’s 523 coal-
fired plants have been closed or are being phased out.
This is happening even in West Virginia, one of the nation’s
biggest coal-producing states. West Virginia’s leading utility,
Appalachian Power, has closed three coal-fired plants in
recent years and converted two others to natural gas.
Other factors in the declining use of coal are the increasing
deployment of solar- and wind-powered generation facilities.
As the price of alternative energy continues to come down, it
is expected to eat into coal’s share even more. That would
mean even fewer jobs for coal miners.
The real killer of the coal industry hasn’t been onerous
federal regulations; it has been free market forces. Utilities
know there are cheaper sources of power than coal and they
are choosing those cheaper sources, regardless of what the
president might say.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an
internet news service at gareport.com that reports on state
government and politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@
gareport.com.
Jefferson mayor’s race: Does anyone care?
Does anybody really care about local city elections?
If the past is any indication, not too much.
The turnout for local elections — city and county — is
usually miserably low. Only
national elections, which
have taken on the veneer of
a reality TV show, do local
voters go out to the polls in
any number.
Most voters want to
be entertained today,
not informed. Voting for
president is “an event,”
voting for mayor, not so
much.
That’s the harsh reality
local candidates running for
city council positions this
fall face. Most candidates
care passionately about
mnning for office. Maybe
their families and a few friends care.
Everyone else is home, watching Honey Boo-Boo remns.
Still, over the last few weeks, the candidates mnning for
mayor on the Jefferson City Council have tmdged forward,
answering questions at multiple political fomms and for this
newspaper, in addition to campaigning one-on-one around
town.
About 75 people attended each of the two fomms held
so far (a third is scheduled this week.) There was a lot of
overlap, though, as many of the same people attended both.
At best, about 100 people net took the time to come out to
see what the candidates had to say out of a city population
of over 10,000.
Pitiful.
For those who haven’t taken time to pay attention to the
Jefferson elections, here’s the Cliff Notes version of the city’s
mayor’s race:
STEVE QUINN
Steve Quinn is challenging incumbent Mayor Roy Plott.
Quinn resigned his council seat in August to mn against Plott,
so he’s not an outsider and is part of the city’s governing
establishment.
Quinn is framing his campaign around the idea that Plott
has done a poor job of communicating, especially between
the city council and the city board of education. Quinn
also pushes the point that there are other communication
problems on the city council as well, hinting that Plott has
been mde to citizens who come before the council and that
internal communications on the council is lacking.
This isn’t a new position for Quinn. He has long complained
that the city does a poor job of getting “its message out.” At
times, he has complained about how this newspaper reports
on the city council’s actions.
The other big issue Quinn has pushed during this election
has been the need for the council to cut the city’s millage rate.
The city didn’t make a millage cutback this year and Quinn
has been critical of that.
Analysis: Quinn may be right that there are communication
problems involving the mayor and council, but he’s not totally
innocent in that. Quinn could have voluntarily attended
meetings of the Jefferson Board of Education to send a
message that he was interested in what that group is doing
and to facilitate more communication between the city and
BOE. As far as I know, he hasn’t done that. In addition, the
Jefferson City Council has a bad habit of holding important
meetings out of town, especially during the summer when
the council is in Savannah at the annual Georgia Municipal
Association convention. In 2014, on a Friday at 5 p.m.,
this newspaper got a notice that the council planned
to hold a meeting that Sunday in Savannah. Obviously,
the council didn’t want our reporters, or any citizens, to
attend that meeting. If Quinn is interested in fostering better
communication between the council and citizens, then why
didn ’t he speak out against such a smarmy tactic?
As for lowering the city tax rate, Quinn is right. But even
he doesn’t go far enough in wanting to make a major cut,
saying the millage rate cut he wants is largely symbolic. The
city can afford a much bigger tax cut than Quinn, or anybody
else, has proposed.
ROY PLOTT
Plott’s campaign position can be summed up as, “the status
quo is good, so why change?” Plott points to the growth the
city has seen in his four years as mayor and to the overall
stability of city government. He brushes off criticism, such
as with the city’s recent audit, by saying the problems are
being fixed. Plott projects a very conservative agenda, often
saying that sometime in the future, maybe certain things can
be done.
But Plott stirred up a mckus a few years back when he
balked on giving the school system the old city library, saying
the school system should buy it for a few hundred thousand
dollars. Only after a lot of pressure did Plott back down and
agree that the school system should be given the old library.
Many in town saw that dispute as Plott being tone-deaf
about the close historical relationship between the school
system and the council and the key role the school system
has played in the city’s development. That has haunted Plott
ever since.
Plott’s other weakness has been his defense of not lowering
the tax rate. That position has opened him up for criticism
since the city is sitting on a huge pile of cash.
Analysis: Plott has projected a very conservative, slow
moving agenda. He's been careful to not overpromise or
oversell the city's ability to make big changes quickly. In the
last forum, he pointed out that luring white collar jobs to a
community isn’t quick or easy. That probably wasn't what
a lot of people wanted to hear, but it’s the reality in an area
where there isn’t much of a pool of highly-educated, white
collar workers.
On the other hand, Plott has been misleading about why
the city doesn’t need to cut the tax rate. He claims that a
digest error last year and the need to hire more employees
this year forced the city to keep the tax rate high. But that’s
just smoke and mirrors. The city has the financial resources
to have made a millage cut this year without it hampering city
operations. And Plott knows the city plays games with how
it budgets. For example, the city purposely under-budgets the
amount of money it will bring in and over-budgets expenses.
That makes the city look like its budget is tighter than it really
is so that officials can claim that the tax rate needs to remain
high.
BOTTOM LINE
Quinn is hoping enough people remember the split
between Plott and the city school system when they go to the
polls. The school system has a lot of dedicated patrons and
is politically stronger than the city government. Its influence
can’t be overstated. If Quinn can capture that vote, along with
the vote of those who are upset about not getting a tax cut and
younger voters who think the city is not aggressive enough, he
might be able to unseat Plott.
For his part, Plott has the advantage of incumbency. Most
city employees are probably working behind the scenes to
keep him in office, especially since he gave them a pay hike
in the FY2018 budget. And despite his snafu with the school
system, Plott has a constituency of older citizens, mostly
retired, who seem comfortable with his agenda and who will
turn out to vote in large numbers.
Overall, the two candidates don’t disagree on very much
about city policies or issues. The race is really more about
style than substance: Quinn projects a more aggressive face
for the city while Plott projects a more plodding agenda.
It remains to be seen, however, how many citizens in
Jefferson care enough to actually turn out and vote for either
one.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers.
He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews. com.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875
Merged with The Commerce News 2017
The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Angela Gary Associate Editor Features
Alex Pace Braselton News Editor
Ron Bridgeman Reporter
Ben Munro Sports Editor
Charles Phelps Sports Reporter
Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features
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