Book contents
- The Coal Trap
- The Coal Trap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Introduction: “The Lost Decade”
- 1 The Rise of Environmental Regulations under Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency
- 2 The Shale Gas Revolution
- 3 The Rise of Renewable Energy
- 4 The “Ds” of Today’s Electric Utility Industry: Decarbonization and Decentralization
- 5 From “Friends of Coal” to the “War on Coal”: How West Virginia Went from Blue to Red
- 6 “Leadership” from Washington, DC: The Congressional Delegation That Could Have but Didn’t
- 7 Manchin in the Middle
- 8 The Failure of the Public Service Commission to Serve the Public
- 9 The Role of the Legislature in West Virginia’s Failed Energy Policies
- 10 Bailing Out the Coal Industry on the Backs of West Virginia’s Electric Ratepayers
- 11 Coal Operators Get Rich and West Virginia Gets to Clean Up the Mess
- 12 What the Future Could Hold if Leaders Choose to Lead
- Acknowledgments
- Index
5 - From “Friends of Coal” to the “War on Coal”: How West Virginia Went from Blue to Red
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2022
- The Coal Trap
- The Coal Trap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Introduction: “The Lost Decade”
- 1 The Rise of Environmental Regulations under Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency
- 2 The Shale Gas Revolution
- 3 The Rise of Renewable Energy
- 4 The “Ds” of Today’s Electric Utility Industry: Decarbonization and Decentralization
- 5 From “Friends of Coal” to the “War on Coal”: How West Virginia Went from Blue to Red
- 6 “Leadership” from Washington, DC: The Congressional Delegation That Could Have but Didn’t
- 7 Manchin in the Middle
- 8 The Failure of the Public Service Commission to Serve the Public
- 9 The Role of the Legislature in West Virginia’s Failed Energy Policies
- 10 Bailing Out the Coal Industry on the Backs of West Virginia’s Electric Ratepayers
- 11 Coal Operators Get Rich and West Virginia Gets to Clean Up the Mess
- 12 What the Future Could Hold if Leaders Choose to Lead
- Acknowledgments
- Index
Summary
Between 1996 – the first year that Joe Manchin ran for statewide office in West Virginia – and 2020, West Virginia changed from a reliably “blue” state, with Democratic registrations outnumbering Republican by 2 to 1, to a state captured by the Republican nominee in every presidential election beginning in 2000, capped by Donald Trump’s 42- and 39-point margins in 2016 and 2020, respectively. As noted by Politico, “few spots in America have shifted politically faster and more decisively than this state, swinging from nearly entirely blue to almost totally red over the last 20 years.”1 In February 2021, party registrations in West Virginia actually edged in favor of Republicans for the first time.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Coal TrapHow West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution, pp. 97 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022