General Motors CEO Mary Barra Selected To Join President-Elect Trump’s Economic Panel
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As President-Elect, Donald Trump, continues to round out his cabinet and staffing choices for his administration, the latest decision sees General Motors CEO Mary Barra joining the team.
Barra has been tapped for President-Elect Trump’s economic panel, according to The Detroit News. She will be one of many CEOs to join the forum, which will advise the president on key economic issues from a variety of private sectors. Trump’s transition team specifically stated the panel is “designed to provide direct input to the president from many of the best and brightest in the business world in a frank, non-bureaucratic and non-partisan manner.”
Barra confirmed her nomination and released the following statement:
[I am] pleased to join President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum because it offers us a seat at an important table where we can contribute to a constructive and open dialogue about key policy issues. We look forward to working with President-elect Trump, his team and other corporate and civic leaders on policies that support a strong and competitive economy and automotive industry.
Members of the forum will bring their “individual views to the president — informed by their unique vantage points in the private sector — on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation and productivity.”
Barra is held in high regard for the work she has done at GM during her tenure and was once even considered to be Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s running mate.
The first meeting of the forum will take place in February of 2017 and will be chaired by Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Blackstone.
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Does this mean that she likes Trump?
Does it matter?
I like Trump. Does it matter to the rest of you?
I think she is intelligent enough to put to the side any political views and differences and focus on what’s more important. America and its workforce and well being of both.
No this means participating in government and being heard.
This may be a very good thing as too often we have politicians making regulations and laws with no input from the businesses that are being effected. Often the only way they are heard is through a lobbyist.
This is a good move for any CEO and for a head of an Automaker this is a very good move.
I can hardly contain myself. Great news. I’m certain Mary will be putting GM’s interests aside while on said panel. For sure. And I’m completely relieved that we don’t have any plain old, regular people on said panel; like those that are actually hurting and just haven’t gotten around to collecting their multi-billion dollar bailout/gift from that swamp Don the Con is gonna drain. Yipee!!!
The next Vette’s gonna be that much more badass now, you wait.
So the C7 was designed by Obama, in Indonesia?
I have faith in Mary Barra. However — if she becomes a tool of a tool — I’ll become an atheist on Barra. Time will tell.
Personally I wouldn’t associate the GM brand with a fascist.
Gm will continue to building electric drives for there car’s in the future. These corvette c8 mid engine will still have a hybrid system in the future.
Your right scott3.
To me this is good for her, the country, and GM.
Hopefully she will soon return to her senses. Most often, people’s good name gets tarnished not because of something they do or say, but because of the people with whom they associate and give advice. Does she really want to be associated with a horrible, belligerent, foul-mouthed, undisciplined, rude, and immoral, and unethical fool? Really? Please say she will come back to the wisdom that got her to the place she has currently holds in respectable industry.
Mary will be ok, Hillary was not invited. LOL!
“associated with a horrible, belligerent, foul-mouthed, undisciplined, rude, and immoral, and unethical fool?”
One side you have The Donald, the other side you have Wasserman-Schultz. Where do you go to get a politician who isn’t?
This will be interesting, given that Buick’s biggest-seller is imported from South Korea, the Envision is imported from China, Cadillac’s growing market is China, Cascada’s made in Poland, Mexico and Canada have production facilities…the EV LaCrosse and CT6s are made in China …
Seems like the issue is how to make global business work better for the US than get in a trade war with China. I hope she and her partners can help Mr. Trump find a solution that benefits us. Cuz if China pulls a trillion or two from our economy, or call bonds due, that’d be a meltdown. Calling Taiwan probably didn’t help settle things down.
I think this is what this is all about.
Trump was a blow hard in the election but who running for office isn’t?
The truth is he is a very shrewd business man and if you look into his past he has always surrounded himself with people that knew what they were doing and did not always agree with him.
There is no one person out there that knows everything to be president. They have to rely on com-pendent people and people who know their stuff. That has been the problem for a good while now as too often the people in the cabinet and other appointed positions were either academics who had no clue of the real world. They were people who were owed for their election support or sadly they were large doaners.
So far I see a man who is looking for the best he can get to lead each area and get thing done for once. Will it work, I am Not sure? There are many who hate to see the old system blown up but it needs to be done.
I think we will see many things here that may be adjusted and negotiated to get better deals. You always shoot for more than you expect and take all that you can get.
As it is now be were being sold down the river for global income sharing. There has been a strong force trying to level the playing field at our and other leading countries expense.
While we were told we will bring the jobs back he knows not all will come back but there is still room to bring many back and keep many from leaving.
Also it is key to bring the money back that the American companies make. So much is left overseas as if it is brought back the government takes so much of it.
The Government and corporations have been on opposite sides for two long and they need to work together as like it or not they need each other.
Time to stop playing the right and the left game and do what is best for America. We bail everyone elses but out of trouble but who would be there to save ours? No one.
Right – particularly China; a massive, consumerist society. We pay a 30% import tariff to them (yes?), and we charge them nothing (?). (The question marks are as I understand it). And GM’s deal with China used to be 51-49% in their favor, but now (at least) it’s 50-50.
Still, speak softly and carry a big stick seems to apply – we’re each big consumers of each other’s products. So reduce the tariff they slap on our goods, work on that 50-50 thing – but I’m troubled by a phone call to Taiwan. They can roil our markets at the blink of an eye, given that they’re also the biggest stakeholder in the US economy.
I hope he gets good counsel from Mary and co, and listens to it. Heard an interesting thing on NPR about how other Indiana companies (besides Carrier) taking gov’t job incentives from Gov Pence, and ended up shipping the jobs abroad anyway. So corporate America has to play fair too – like Apple, etc., setting up their finance dept in Ireland, manufacturing iPhones with Foxconn …the president elect has plenty on his plate.
A man who poos on a golden toilet is trying to fix things for the average guy.
Riiiiiiight….
We Just had a K.K.K. “Trump Victory Rally” up the road from me and we’ve had upwards of 960 hate crimes since King Donald’s election. Isn’t THAT great?
This so disingenuous.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/maureensullivan/2016/11/29/are-there-really-more-hate-crimes-at-schools-following-donald-trumps-election/#21fc54ef188e
The many reports you find are either just numbers from far right web sites and forums. Or if you actually take the time to check many of them out they are false reports if they were made where un named people attacked and were never found and often the accusers are not willing to cooperate since often there is no evidence to show what happened if it even did happen.
In this day and age where nearly all people have a smart phone no one has any video of anything happening even though we can get people catching a plane crash that spontaneously happens.
So often the far left like to paint the opposition as raciest often with no proof or take a isolated nut and try to connect it to the right when it is not. Lets face it both sides have a small number of wack jobs out there that can not be controlled.
The left wants to paint Trump with David Duke someone he has never met or supported while they take a person like Ellison as a possible leader who has praised Louis Farrakhan and attended his services while preaching anti Semitic hate. Now tell me who is the agent of hate here? Would you want someone like this running your party? You want Pelosi running the country with her bent twisted views from San Fran or would you rather have someone Like Tim Ryan that would better represent more parts of the country than one densely populated city.
Trump is a loud obnoxious New Yorker. But if he has done any real hate or really has done anything works than speaking poorly about some people long before he considered a run for office you would have seen it on CNN or MSNBC by now, Someone so public and with so many people working for him would have been used by the left but to this point many they have used are not what you think and often just bitter people who did not get their way.
With so much controlled media it is upon us to use some common sense when looking at the news but today Common Sense is not as Common as it once was.
It is time for all of us to look around and wake up and realize what we had was not working and we need to try some new things and try to better work for the whole of the country and not just a few special interest groups.
Business is where it all begins. We are not going to get it all back but we had better find ways to protect what we have and grow it more than we have.
The Democrats here in the mid west have woke up and finally have done some things to save jobs. Goodyear was nearly ready to leave Akron Ohio like Firestone, BFG and General tire. The Democratic officials help Goodyear by building a new headquarters to get them out of an very inefficient 100 year old building to a modern efficient one. They then gave them tax breaks and made a 50 year lease to keep them here that long. The jobs they saved in the long run and the small businesses they support all will give back much more than Goodyear got.
it is time that the Salt water left needs to find out there is no utopia and many of them are being duped by people making millions off of them while they pay for all their free programs.
You want free Collage? Well you will pay for it the rest of your life in taxes. Also go to school where you can afford it or take a class that will pay for it. Nothing earned nothing given.
To me real hate is Chicago where the mayor and others refuse to really do anything to prevent many ethnic and racial murders by gangs in their own neighborhoods. There is a evil small number of people controlling a large city and have many people in fear in their own homes. You can not get more hateful than that.
I wouldn’t know where to begin Scott. You’ve blown my mind from the get-go with a dubious link to a biased source. I have seen, read, AND bookmarked many real, documented attacks. Don’t go all Alex Jones on me.
You talk about free programs–services for the less fortunate–like they’re the work of Satan, and tax giveaways to a multi-billion dollar corporation like they’re the work of Mother Theresa. I don’t get it.
I’m not going to bother with Donald Trump. He’s not worth one more minute of my day. Defend him, praise him… good luck, you can have him.
Ultimately I think we’ll have to agree to disagree and leave it at that. Maybe, worst case, we can meet somewhere in the middle someday.
That is just it you have no idea where to begin.
FYI no Alex Jones here as I think of him a nut or a little to dramatically over the top. Nor a Follower of Hannity or even Rush.
I have a business and Economic background and understand how things work and don’t work. The web has become Pravda for both sides and many of the truths are not written and most of the people ignorant to the point they have no clue who they elected to any office let alone know how the world and economy really work and how dysfunctional government has become in the power struggle between the two.
Having Mary Barra on Trump’s economic strategic policy team is great news for the domestic based auto industry.
The key issue will be fair and balanced global trade. Countries with one way trade are now in trouble.
Mary is also good for China, since GM builds and sells 300,000+ cars/SUV’s in China, via several joint ventures.
Net export Countries, where GM is restricted from having manufacturing operations are in trouble. I can only think of one Country, and that would be Japan. Even though Japan builds cars in the U.S. , their Country is closed to GM and Ford.
One only has to ask who provides more jobs and economic growth. Is it the Government?
No they only collect tax and run up debt.
Is it the people on government programs? No.
Is it the leaders of industry and business be it a small business to large cooperation that spur economic growth and create jobs that add to this growth.
Like Police who only have a small number of bad people getting the majority of the news Business is the same as they get hit hard for the Bernie Madoffs that are only a small percentage of the millions of people who own and run businesses.
The reality is no one on Welfare gave anyone a job but people in business do. For too long we have had many people in Government just bad mouthing business and now working to find ways to create an atmosphere that is beneficial to all parties. No one in the last how many years have worked to do much nationally to make a climate favorable to business.
More Jobs and more work = more taxes, more individual opportunity and income = better income on investments and it all spurs growth that pays for infrastructure.
We demonize people who are self made and successful and punish them with taxes that too often lease to the sale or closing of their business upon their death due to taxes. The truth is if they did it right, legal and legitimately then we should hold them up as examples of how to make it in life. They are what we should teach to the young vs, just to look to the government for another hand out.
This country is a country of opportunity. What you make of it depends on you. The way to the top is seldom easy and with out risk or pain but the path is clear with smart moves and hard work.
If you do not want to believe it then explain why so many Hard working Asian people who have come here since the 70’s have raised families educated their young and taken care of their old all while building successful lives and c arrears? There is much to learn from their hard work and discipline as their culture teaches this.
It is a wise move to get all sides active and work to making things better. No they will not solve all the issues but the first step is getting everyone heard and getting all the real concerns on the table and then work to make the best deals possible in the interest of the companies and our country.
United we stand Divided we will surly fall.
I think we peasants could sit here and argue this one all day here on social media, in the confines of our homes, like the powers that be would like,
The truth is our economy is a complex animal. Yes, a large corporation can provide many jobs (and many lost jobs should they relocate, merge, automate, and so on). But it’s us little guys that make their existence and growth possible. That’s why you’ll be hearing so much about holiday spending the next few weeks and it;s why we talk sales and market share with respect to GM here on this site. If us little people aren’t buying, or spending, the big guys are in big trouble (yes, the little guys that work for the bigs guys are also in trouble–that’s the system).
As for that guy on welfare, or retiree on social security, they don’t just take their checks and burn them, they put that money right back into the system–at the store buying Kraft macaroni, paying rent, paying medical bills, buying gas, GM cars, Ford trucks, Dinesh D’Souza books, etc.–helping to keep the economy rolling and many other little guys and corporations happy.
Tax cuts can spur short term economic growth, that’s why Bush and Obama both sought tax relief when our economy was ailing, but they’re not a long term solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. If cutting taxes for corporations and the rich were some sort of magic bullet, then our economy would never slow.
The fact of the matter is corporate America is not hurting. They’ve never been better off. Take their money out of the system now–their excess–as it’s been proposed, and the system suffers somewhere down the line, in the form of services, or debt, or both. Don’t take my word for it, listen to an economist–get a second opinion.
Whatever is done with respect to cutting taxes for the rich or corporations, believe me, one peasant to another, it won’t be enough. Ever. They’ll come back years from now ,complaining about how hard they have it, how the taxes in some undeveloped, third-world ****hole are so much more favorable, and they’ll ultimately get what they want, because us peasants will have our heads in the sand then too.
And the government–the one so many like to vilify–is the largest employer in the country. They’re our military, our teachers, our cops, our air traffic controllers, postal workers, customs agents, food inspectors, and on and on–regular people, doing regular, necessary jobs that benefit us all.
As for the government as the largest employer that is one of the greatest issues.
They provide a lot of services but they provide so very little in GNP. They really provide so little that we can sell or trade and that adds much to our trade deficit.
Too many think that the government is the gears of change. The fact is they are the grease on the gears of change and the Gears are still good solid business.
Just look at Russia and China and how little they progressed under Socialism. Even Cuba. Sure they have free health care but many can not even get electricity 24 hours a day in some areas of such a small country.
Churchhill summed it up properly.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Yes the Economy is a very complex beast. This is why one needs to keep informed on just what is going on and how to prepare for it not relying on a government for your daily needs if possible.
The reality is for every action there is a reaction that is not equal and always opposite. The truth in life is there are winners and losers, also for every winner there is going to be a loser. Life is just never fail.
The key is to position yourself to take advantage you may have to better your life. Luck does not happen you have to put yourself in place to take advantage of it where ever you are at.
But there are some simple things to follow. You make it tough on business to do business in your country or state they will go somewhere else. Nothing is more true than that. You provide a good climate to do business and you will get back much more.
The fact of the matter Corporate America and America in general is a fine balancing act and it can be tossed so very easy with so much government debt. The only reason China puts up with us is because they know the entire global financial system and investments would collapse. Same for us to them.
For years we were afraid of mutual assure global nuclear annihilation. That changed when we based the Dollar on Oil back during Nixon. Today the world is in fear of Mutual assured global financial annihilation.
It is set so if one of us goes down we all go down and WW III will be based on money not land or natural resources like the first two.
For the world to operate it takes people in all classes from rich to poor. That is one of the first things a Collage Economics teacher with no agenda will teach you.
Now along the way people have come in and tried to implement Social and economic justice or a level playing field for the world. For that to happen it would call for the need to everyone to share equally and that means the strong cede power and money while the weak gain in both. The problem is for the strong to give up power and money it calls for a drop in their status in the world and for them to take a step back. Often to pacify people they are offered free things say like education and health care as they will no longer be able to afford it.
Welfare is the great pacifier for the masses to prevent them from rising up. The problem is they are not able to pacify the masses as they don’t have enough money to do it anymore. Welcome to Brexit. More will follow soon as they are tired of being told what to do and bailing others out. Germany will toss Merkle next. Bringing in Millions from the middle east will finish her off.
There is so much more but that was just a start.
I can’t disagree with you. Good post.
He’s being handed a great economy with a 4.5 percent unemployment rate with incomes going up. Tickle down economist’s never worked in the past. And it was tried with the last Business owner President that we had George W Bush. Trump knows in places where he won he better get off the pot and deliver on some of these million of promises. And not scapegoat other people. Mitt Romney said that he would be happy with 6 percent btw.
And in coal country these jobs are not coming back and you can’t make somebody buy something that they don’t want. And people just do not want the black rock. And it’s not just Obama it’s the marketplace….Wall St. Tells the companies to make money the what’s cheaper? They blow up the mountains to get to the coal drag the wood into the valley and burn it. Men are not needed to mine the jobs remaining…part time.
Well there are some issues here.
#1 The unemployment number is listed at a percentage by some as being near full employment. The problem is we had a record number of non participation in the work force. This means a record number of people are not even trying to look for work anymore.
When used the unemployment number you have to factor in all aspects not pick and choose the numbers that look good. A six percent number with a much lower non participation number would be a much stronger economic leader. This was what Mitt was referring to.
As for coal there are many people that would love to use coal and most electric companies that have made great amounts of investment into their plants to make them burn clean. The problem is they keep raising the standard and pretty much told them they could not use it anymore rendering these high tech plants useless.
The serious offense here is the fact they have rendered two states with nothing for work. Already West Virginia is known for two things. One is Coal and the other is state Jobs. The joke down there is we have the best roads in the country as it is our industry. That is no way to get head.
Coal is cheap and in very great supply, It would be wise to better invest in ways to use it clean and even share it with other counties that go very unregulated. The third world can not afford other types of energy and will continue to use coal.
In the mean time you have two states with high unemployment many are now not participating in the job market as they have nothing to apply for as the state can not take in anymore.
Heck the Federal government built a large Coast Guard facility in WV? Why to spend more money there for jobs that really are in the wrong place. I guess they have not noticed there is no large beach on the east side of WVA? But his is how government works or should I say not work.
I have spent a lot of time in coal country and in the heart of the mountains there. The reality is I watch as they took the coal jobs away and made a long time Roosevelt Democratic state into a Red state nearly over night. The people down there are about as Roosevelt Democratic a you get but they feel they were left abandon by their own party.
I have pondered if there were more of them I would wager they would not have been abandoned.
The truth is there is still a great market for coal. Things were fine till the Obama appointed people regulated it out.
They have tried to the same with the performance industry. Go to the SEMA website and read up on the RPM act. They are trying now to say the laws passed by the House and Senate were to include off road cars like race cars and it would be illegal to remove any emissions from any car even if it were used one 1/4 mile at a time.
This is a very dangerous unconstitutional move. Even Democrats in the house have opposed it. They had better listen to Tim Ryan or they will be rendered as useless as coal by their own actions.
Scott, I agree with you on workforce participation being an issue, but I disagree with you on coal. The last estimate I’m familiar with from the American Lung Association claimed nearly 13,000 deaths per year in the US, due to particle pollution from burning coal. I’m not aware of any figures for miners who have developed black lung disease, but I understand the numbers are going up due to mountaintop coal mining and not down (fewer workers working longer hours + more coal dust becoming airborne, I believe). And then there’s things like water pollution from extracting, burning, and then storing coal’s toxic leftovers (the latter being one we’re all too familiar with in my area). Oh, and something called global warming. 🙂
Do we really want to fuel China and India’s economy at the expense of our health, our mountains, and our environment?
Solar is in it’s infancy, yet we already have more solar jobs than coal jobs (that’s not including other renewable energy jobs either). In fact, even at its peak there were never more than 250,000 coal jobs here in the US . You would think from the resistance the industry has put up that those jobs numbered in the millions.
Lets not reverse progress for a few fossil fuel billionaires.
I agree Back lung is a fact of life for miners. Generally most are better off than years ago when there was little ventilation and safety measures but it is still a factor. But many miners need jobs and a way to feed the family and it is their way of life.
One thing that is left out of the black lung deal is most of these guys smoke like a smoke stack. My wife’s grand father died of it or the cigarettes but most likely a combo of both. But with out that job and farming there was not much to do. He left the state for a while to find work else where but he was from WV and that is where he wanted to live.
Most coal burning is done in power plants that are very highly regulated. Most are as clean as most other factories.
As for strip mining that is what it really is called but it is found in different places and generally the land is reclaimed for other use or restored back to nature. It take little time for it to turn wide again. In areas where because of the mountains you get sun from 10-2 daily you welcome a large flat area to may build a company like NGK to make spark plugs and bring work to an area that could not support a plant.
None of this is perfect but it is also no where as bad as some environmentalist want to make it. I have been to thee places and spent a lot of time around it. so when it comes to mining that is not as big of a problem as it used to be. Years ago yes but even nature has reclaimed many of these sites. We have one near us here in Ohio that is some of the cleanest clear water to swim in. Cold, deep but clean.
You make a good point Solar is in it’s infancy. That is a good point just as you can not rely on an infant to take care of a family it is far from being able to replace our growing needs for electricity. Same for wind as one wind mills only can produce so much if you have the wind. The farms along lake Erie a very windy area have been marginal and they want to build more and more yet no one wants to look at them as it screws up the view of the environment worse than a cell tower.
The past industry was built on affordable and plentiful energy and that was coal. We need to find way to replace it as we have yet to have one thing or a series of thing to replace it.
Here in Ohio the loss of the coal fired electric plants is going to drive up our cost that already are too high. Solar is not going to solve it nor wind. Nuke plants here are always shutting down and need repair. We have Niagara Falls but they can only put out so much.
We really need a combination of it all. There are ways to take advantage of it all and work for new technologies that may work better in the future. The key is not to kill the economy.
We need to make this a fine balance here as going cold turkey will come at a even higher price that will make reaction to those who made the laws wish they had not done so.
The key for the environmental people is to make villains of anyone that opposes them. This has been a key to them all along.
Rich people are evil and large companies are despicable. The truth is most not all rich people are generally good people and most try to do the right thing in a balanced way. Same for most companies.
Even today companies are investing in marginal energy things to make people happy and to try to do the right thing.
The toxic brown fields we have today are mostly left overs of decades ago that were never cleaned or opened up. I have a lime lake deposit near me that PPG created over 100 years from soda ask deposits left over from making their products. Today it is reclaimed and still being worked on and will be a large natural preserve and park. We already have a bike path and it is not unusual to see all sorts of nature include Bald Eagles the one animal really affected by toxic sites.
Here again this is an issues that both business and government need to work together on and not make demand that can not be met with out economic damage.
Also more care needs to be taken in the Green industry and subsidies. So much money has been stolen and misused there. Some of the abusers we see are like Al Gore and Maurice Strong who was one of the prime drivers of the green industry that finally passed away in hiding with his billions in of all places China who was protecting him as he never said a word about their pollution. He also was in on the Scam for the UN food for Africa that had millions stolen. .
Good all Al Gore just keeps telling us how bad things are but yet buys larger and larger houses and keeps on flying is private Gulf Stream. Sorry I can’t respect someone like that.
On the other hand we have Ed Begley the actor that actually live the life he professes. I would never go to his extremes but I do admire his life and how he is very honest about his beliefs.
In the end I do not want to reverse but I want to temper the changes so they work together. Never get rid of something till you can replace it for better.
As for cleaning the world get China and India to make the needed changed and you will not only make this a much better place but you will not penalize America for doing what is right. What better incentive could you have.
I’m from Ohio myself and can certainly sympathize with the pain and loss many communities have felt as our world has evolved and once vibrant industries have left for other parts (the stories my dad, grandfathers, and uncles could tell… ). I had to leave the area as a matter of survival, but I still have family there and in the region. It’s always going to be home to my heart and a big part of me hopes to live there again someday.
You couldn’t pay me to live anywhere near a coal town, though. How or why the good, mostly poor as hell people in those areas can live there is well beyond me. Perhaps those towns were once promising but, like I said, the world has evolved.
And it’s time people come to grips with that. America, and that part of the country in particular, might have once been the center of the universe, but it’s not anymore. And those coal towns will never employ a fraction of the people they once did because mountaintop coal mining, a.k.a. strip-mining on steroids, doesn’t require anywhere near the manpower that traditional methods do (the US is producing DOUBLE the coal with a fifth of the workforce it did forty years ago). On top of it all, we’ve got cheap natural gas like we’ve never had before thanks to fracking, and renewables are becoming cheaper and more efficient every day.
With so many alternatives to coal here in the U.S. demand for it is shrinking. But we still have exports. My question is, is it worth it? Because contrary to what you said, the consequences of mountaintop mining to the environment are huge. You can’t take hundreds of feet off a mountain and put it back the way it was, ever.
What’s left in the ruble? Millions of acres of forests, gone. Soil shot to hell. Thousands of acres of streams, gone. Polluted waterways. Polluted groundwater. Increased flooding for the streams and rivers left unspoiled. A permanent loss of wildlife habitat. Deformed wildlife. Land that’s largely unstable to build on. And a dramatically altered quality of life for the people left behind—particularly the poor.
I feel you on windmills. They make good sense in your area but they are ugly to look at. Prettier than a messed up mountain though, IMO.
I agree on Gore being a fraud (although he can talk a hell of a game). Agree on getting other countries to clean up their messes. And I agree, ultimately, on balance. But we have to be honest with ourselves when it comes to science and the environment.
I care about jobs but I care about my health and the future we’re leaving behind for our kids too. If you ask me, we need to move beyond the ways of the past and adjust our goals if we want to have any kind of world worth living in.
/Rant
The strip mining is no where like it used to be. Also the yes we have fracking but then people protest it and I suspect once there is another change in office it may be removed from the table before we have a viable replacement.
I have no issue with the new technologies but I am not willing to give them up totally till we have real solutions to replace them in place not just in development.
As for Mountin top mining is is far from as common as you like to make it sound. We have more more pit mines out west for other ores. ..
If you are from Ohio you really should vist many of the places the once mined as since the 70’s they have reclaimed most of the land and it has over grown with 40 years of trees so the forest in many case are back and regrown.
The rare areas in WV where they have cut down a mountain are now places where factories and shopping areas have been placed that in some places were greatly needed as you often have to drive nearly an hour to even find a Mc Donald s.
The Federal government made laws long ago that you can not leave a mess anymore and in most cases they leave the area in fine condition and no spoiled soil.
Trust me wild life is far from lost. We have so many animals now that it has become a problem.
We have so many Bear that they are entering cities now. It is no unusual for a bear to make its way into East Cleveland now. I have had them pass through here at the house. The Deer are over populated,
I can step out my door and see large groups of Turkey, Deer Bear, Coyote, Cougar, Bobcats, a thriving Bald Eagle population. Even there was a report of a Moose that was spotting in the NE tip of Ohio.
The fact is we in most areas are doing a good job now of balancing things. We also still have people either under a false impression we are not or some that just out and out lie about the conditions.
The truth is the earth recovers at a faster rate than many environmental people want to admit. Even in natural things like the MT ST Helens they said it was gone for hundreds of years yet look today.
I have seen many places where they were left abandon years ago and nature has taken over. I have seen cars to the point only bits are left buildings where only foundations can be found and many of the traces of man are being erased by nature at a fast pace.
I think we are close in what we see or believe but you are just a l little over the line on direction and I am just a little over the line there other direction of how bad or good things are seen. You sound as if you live on the west coast or near an area that is close to salt water as similar thinking is common.
I know if I lived and spent most of my time in the So Cal area I would probably think similar just looking around. But I live in these areas where strip mining has been done. We had great industry here but it is gone and most of the places reclaimed. We are cleaner but so many fewer jobs. I was lucky I did not go as my father wanted me to do and join the tire industry as it gone accept for Goodyear. Steel Gone. and most other industry jobs gone.
But there is no one thing that is going to fix this and it will take all things to make it work. I just want to see us only cast things off once we replace them. So many are just wanting to kill things off and it leave most of us picking up the bills and many people just can no longer afford to do this anymore.
It is kind of like losing weight you do it with a good diet and exercise. You can not just go cold turkey and stop eating or the patient will suffer.
We have had nothing for energy plans as one side just wants to wipe out all we have and others go the other way trying to save all we have but no middle ground.
Add to this the many lies told on both sides about what is really going on that are picked up by many that just don’t any different because they never visit these areas or have ever been there. Like in your case it sounds like you are from here but with the things you say it sounds like you have not been here for a good while. Bases on how you put things it comes across like you base it on how it once was or just what you read. I never left and what you speak of is not how it really is in any wide spread way. Sure you may have a rare site here or there but those things just do not happen like they used to.
The truth is we get more flooding from a new housing development than we do any mines. they are not as regulated.
I have been lucky to spend time in many parts of this country and a lot in So Cal as it has been a place I get to go often. Fun to see but a real mess. I grew up seeing the beach movies and sunshine and found cold polluted water because of Mexico, Sun only from 1-5 PM and people upon people with some real messes there.
My first trip there was some green space between San Diego and Santa Barbra but now only Camp Pendelton is left. The rest is all city. To me a week there a year is enough.
I appreciate the give and take here and enjoyed it, While we do not agree I see you as very reasonable and not some far left wacko but as some one who really does care. Thank you for the fair and honest debate. I really mean it!
Hi Scott, you’ve clearly articulated your positions and I appreciate having a civil discussion even though we disagree on a number of points with respect to mountaintop mining. Civility is a rarity on the net and I thank you for that. I would follow up , I’ve given this issue a lot of thought the last 24 hours plus and would love to talk about it, but I’m truthfully dead tired right now and I’m going to have to focus on work and some other projects for the time being.
I assure you I’m from Ohio. I don’t want to get too specific, but when I hit Akron I’m within an hour’s drive max from home. (Good call on staying away from the tire industry.) Maybe someday we’ll hit a car show together. That would be something.
Well, till next time. 🙂