The Swine Republic

Few states are identified more strongly with a natural resource than is West Virginia. Fifty-three of its 55 counties are underlain with 62 separate veins of coal that has been mined since 1810 (1), more than a half-century before the state was pried away from Confederate Virginia by pro-Union factions and was recognized by Congress and President Lincoln. The plant remains petrified by heat and pressure and the people charged with extracting them from billion-year-old mountains were made the soul of West Virginia. The coal helped heat and electrify the country, win two world wars, and produce steel in nearby Pittsburgh and automobiles in Detroit. Employment in West Virginia coal mining likely peaked around 1950, when 125,000 miners comprised 6.25% of the state’s population of 2 million (2). Since then, the state’s population has dropped by 300,000 while the number of miners has declined more than 90% to 11,400 in 2021, barely more than 0.5% of West Virginians (3). West Virginia miners ...

  The corn ethanol-carbon capture pipeline schemes continue to be up front and center in the news. Although there are multiple pipelines, garnering the most attention is the one proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions that will capture carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) gas from Iowa corn ethanol refineries and then pump it into North Dakota bedrock where it can scavenge oil from tired wells and inspire EPA to designate ethanol as kryptonite against climate change which will subsequently help ROWGs (Rich Old White Guys) get even richer.  The Summit proposal is being led by the Murderers' Row of cashing in on climate change: Terry Branstad (Lou Gehrig, because he's seemingly always in the lineup), Bruce Rastetter (Babe Ruth calling his shot) and Jess Vilsack (newcomer but future Hall of Famer Earle Combs). The 1927-28 Yankees led by the Babe and his own Murderers' Row steamrolled the American League on their way to becoming the first team to sweep (4 games to none) in two consecutive Worl...