W.Va. report says coal costs state less than first estimated, but more than it brings in

West Virginia's coal industry costs the state budget $42 million a year, says a revised report from consulting firm Downstream Strategies and the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy. The authors initially estimated the cost at $97.5 million but revised that figure after criticism leveled by coal lobbyists and by industry researchers at Marshall University, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports. A similar study in Kentucky by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development reached a similar conclusion and drew similar complaints but has not been revised.

Both reports argue that while the coal industry provides jobs and tax revenues, it costs the states in the form of tax breaks, damage to roads and other impacts than the industry's economic activity generates in taxes. Ted Boettner, director of the West Virginia center, told Ward that he and other researchers "agreed with a number" of industry criticisms of their study, but "Several are simply mistaken and fail to acknowledge many of the costs associated with coal mining." The original report was funded partly by environmental groups.

"Among the biggest changes in the estimates was the addition of $31.5 million to the estimate of direct coal industry revenues to cover local property taxes that provide additional state aid to schools through county school boards," Ward writes. "The new report again emphasized concerns about what it estimated at $5 billion in 'legacy costs' to fix damaged roads and clean up abandoned coal mines covered by West Virginia's special reclamation program." Boettner said the state legislature should follow the advise of Democratic state House member Nancy Guthrie, who called for a comprehensive study of coal's costs and benefits. (Read more)