Today, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its annual energy outlook that Includes projections for regional coal production from 2009 to 2035. EIA is expecting a very steep decline in central Appalachian coal production and a slight increase in production in northern Appalachia. According to EIA, West Virginia is included in both central and…
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Last week, Senator Jay Rockefeller gave an historic and courageous speech on the future of coal and the EPA (MACT) rule to limit contaminants and mercury emissions from coal fired power plants. Ken Ward analyzes the speech at Coal Tattoo so we don't have to. As the Center for American Progress (CAP) points out, this…
While the country is struggling to dig itself out of the Lesser Depression, the mining industry (oil, gas, and coal) has fared much better than most industries over the last three years. Currently, the unemployment rate in the mining industry is 4.5 percent, which is close to full employment, compared to 7.9 percent nationally. As…
Over at the Wheeling Intelligencer there seems to be some confusion about the growth and the number of natural gas jobs in the state, with estimates ranging from about 2,200 to over 16,000. Compiled below is a breakdown of natural gas sector job growth based on an analysis we did back in November. These annual…
As we discussed in a previous post, coal mining employment has risen over the last three years. Today, Workforce WV released job figures for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the annual average of 2011. Included in this release is coal mining employment. The two charts below use this new data to update our previous…
Last year, legislation was introduced in Congress to apply the Social Security payroll tax to earnings above $250,000, to help alleviate Social Security's long term budget shortfall. Currently, wages over a certain yearly total ($110,100 this year) are exempted from Social Security payroll taxes. Raising or eliminating this cap could help strengthen Social Security's finances, but for…
On Friday, Floyd Norris of the New York Times had a piece on the increase in seniors working since 2006. In West Virginia, we've seen a similar pattern. In 2011, approximately 13.2 percent of those 65 and older were employed compared to just 9.0 percent in 2006. In comparison, in 2011 49.9 percent of all…
Brad Delong sends us to this great speech (and presentation) from venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, which was recently banned from TED. More on that here. His remarks remind me of the Robert Reich axiom: You can't have a strong economy without a strong middle class. While businesses and the 1% love tax cuts, it has…
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The clarion call for tax reform continues to sound in West Virginia, as the business community continues to rail against the state's business personal property tax, regardless of a lack of evidence. So what would tax reform look like in West Virginia? First, let's go ahead an eliminate the business personal property tax. We know that the business personal property…