West Virginia Sen. Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) announced last week that he has formed a group called called Southern
Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy (SCORE) to look into ways to diversify and revitalize the struggling economy in Southern West Virginia, Ken Ward
reports for the Charleston Gazette.
Last year Kentucky Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, a Republican from Eastern Kentucky, joined forces to launch Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), an effort to stimulate the economy of Eastern Kentucky, which includes some of the nation's poorest counties. The group has since held meetings in search of ways to improve and diversify the economy of Appalachian Kentucky.
The West Virginia effort will be similar to the one in Kentucky, Ward writes. SCORE will focus on looking into ways to "increase funding for tourism advertising and development; education and workforce development and retraining initiatives; dedicating monies for viable redevelopment projects; agribusiness and rural development opportunities; increase Broadband access; expanding and supporting intermodal transportation; explore development of coalbed methane reserves; and support clean coal research and development."
Kessler told Ward, “Southern West Virginia has become a region stricken with a lack of opportunity and hope. It’s time to change our way of thinking so that it can once again become a region that offers our children and grandchildren opportunities for a better future. It is not impossible to envision a renewed Southern West Virginia.” (Read more)
A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.
Monday, October 20, 2014
West Virginia follows Kentucky's lead, forms group to reshape Appalachian economy
Labels:
Appalachia,
coal,
economic development,
economic disparity,
economic justice,
economy,
education,
energy,
environment,
mining,
natural gas,
Rural Development,
technology
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment