Terry's California Compadre Wants to Cripple Virginia Coal

Thomas Steyer, the wildly successful, and controversial hedge fund manager from California, and staunch environmentalist is coming with a dose of new-fashioned California environmentalism aimed right at one of Virginia's oldest, most essential, and hardest hit industries. Steyer announced his target yesterday; Virginia's coal industry is in the crosshairs.

Regardless of the recent advances that have been made in environmentally safe mining, processing, and utilization,  Steyer has already made up his mind. Coal=BAD. His own statement on a trip here was that “It doesn’t matter if you’re telling them to tie shoes...the people don’t want to be told what to do. Hasn’t that been the cliché since they were shooting IRS agents?” speaking of Virginia Coal Country(a region that Terry has already made clear that he does not care about). 

Labeling an entire region of Virginia as essentially ignorant is not a good way to start, Tom. 

Terry is taking the cues from his many investors; investors who will not have to feel the consequences of his actions, as few of them are Virginians. Virginians will, though. McAuliffe snubbed the area in 2007 for his "plan" to create jobs(lucky, since what he delivered in Mississippi was miles short of what he touted) and now he is turning his back on the region for a check from California.

Times are hard already in Western Virginia. Unemployment is up, and the economic "recovery" has yet to make its way there. People would love to talk real solutions to unemployment in these counties, but green energy just is not it. If McAuliffe wins, Steyer (like all of Terry's out of state friends) is going to come looking for some return on his investment. Virginia cannot afford to risk the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of citizens on the financial quicksand that today's green energy start-up market is resembling.

The GAO is now reporting that on the Federal level, 501 Million Dollars of green job training have basically been poured into jobs that don't exist. Only about half of trainees were able to find a job at all afterwards, let alone a green job. That is the kind of risk that Virginians in hard-hit coal country cannot afford. But McAuliffe is taking the check, and all of the implication that comes with it.

Terry's list of insider friends from outside the Commonwealth continues to grow; and Virginians ought to be seriously concerned about all of the "mandates" in the hands of these donors. Because those "mandates" are no more Virginian than Terry McAuliffe is. 

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