Ohio needs Appalachian infrastructure plan
Posted November 09, 2020 in Press Releases
In the wake of the announcement of final results in the 2020 presidential race, Amanda Woodrum, senior researcher at Policy Matters Ohio and Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of Keystone Research Center, co-directors of the ReImagine Appalachia (RA) campaign, made the following statement on behalf of the RA campaign:
“Like most of us, the people living in the Ohio Valley want future generations to have the opportunity for a better life. The high turnout, voting patterns, and exit polls in southwest Pennsylvania, southeast Ohio, West Virginia and eastern Kentucky show that many people living in the region are worried about the future. For decades, some politicians and their corporate backers have sown division based on what we look like or where we come from, while they held down wages and shipped jobs overseas. Absentee corporations in the extractive industries have left too many Appalachian communities in poverty by exploiting the region’s workforce while also leaving the land scarred and the environment polluted. During the COVID-19 recession, inequality has grown even wider, with billionaires seeing their wealth rise by nearly a trillion dollars and our region losing another 90,000 manufacturing jobs.
"Given our new national political lineup, federal leaders have a golden opportunity to rebuild the region by passing an aggressive climate stimulus that voters of both parties would support. In our region, an Appalachian climate infrastructure program could create over half a million jobs, many of them good-paying union trades and other blue collar jobs that can be performed safely outside, including:
- 100,000 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) jobs paying at least $15 per hour (the minimum wage level supported by 61% of Floridians and big majorities wherever referenda are on the ballot or polls conducted).
- Thousands of jobs laying fiber optic cable to deliver universal high-quality broadband vital to the economic future of the rural parts of the Ohio River Valley.
- Tens of thousands of clean manufacturing jobs, growing the number of manufacturing jobs in our region for the first time in four decades.
“The new administration and Congress can signal they got the memo that working people want good jobs and dignity—which the ReImagine Appalachia blueprint would deliver. The ReImagine vision can unite young and old and every race and gender in a collective effort to protect our people, our homes and region, and our country from the more devastating consequences that would result from inaction on climate—while also feeding people’s hunger for opportunity and a chance to contribute.
"Congressional leaders from our region, including our U.S. senators, will have outsized influence on whether Washington embraces a climate stimulus big enough to kick start the recovery and respectful enough of the working people on the frontlines of climate response. We look forward to working with our congressional delegation and our new president to enact a New Deal that Works for US and to make our ReImagined Appalachia—and a ReImagined America—a reality.”
For more information on the Reimagine Appalachia (RA) blueprint, check out our web page, https://reimagineappalachia.org/, including:
The blueprint: https://reimagineappalachia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ReImagineAppalachia_Blueprint_092020.pdf
The summary of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) jobs study for Ohio: https://reimagineappalachia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/OH-Summary_ReImagine-Appalachia_OhioPeriBrief_11_03_20.pdf
The PERI jobs study for Ohio: https://reimagineappalachia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pollin-et-al-OHIO-Reimagine-Appalachia-and-Clean-Energy-Programs-10-19-20.pdf
The summary of the PERI preliminary study for Pennsylvania:
The preliminary PERI jobs study for Pennsylvania:
The summary of the RA white papers on broadband, clean manufacturing, and regenerative agriculture/CCC: https://reimagineappalachia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Reimagine-Appalachia-White-Papers-Summary-10-28-2020.pdf
The broadband white paper:
The clean manufacturing white paper:
The CCC/regenerative agriculture white paper:
The RA campaign video: https://www.facebook.com/ReImagineAppalachia/videos/331010637929441
The RA campaign townhall meeting with Senator Casey on CCC (which starts at 2 minutes 20 seconds of the video): https://www.facebook.com/113388530380921/videos/370688194365258/
The RA press zoom call releasing the OH and PA jobs studies: https://www.facebook.com/113388530380921/videos/802960627132041