CLARKSBURG — During President Barack Obama’s visit to Charleston today, West Virginia officials said they’re hopeful the Commander in Chief will consider how federal environmental regulations have contributed to the socioeconomic challenges the state currently faces.
Obama is scheduled to arrive in Charleston today for a forum on the rise in substance abuse — especially heroin and prescription opioids — that in recent years has plagued the nation and West Virginia in particular.
But any discussion of the prevalence of substance abuse in West Virginia should also account for the state’s economic struggles, struggles driven in large part by a downturn in the state’s coal industry.
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Every official who spoke with The Exponent Telegram Tuesday said it’s good that the president is visiting West Virginia to highlight the substance abuse epidemic, citing it as an issue of grave importance that deserves attention.
But the economic problems created by the coal industry’s downturn, and the extent to which environmental regulations have contributed to a marketplace where basically no new coal-fired power plants are being built, deserves the president’s attention as well, they said.
“West Virginians are rightfully concerned about the devastating impact this Administration’s harmful regulations have had on the coal industry, and I think our questions should be answered,” U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said. “However, we must recognize that this visit brings national attention to a problem that is extremely devastating to our state and is important to ending prescription and illicit drug abuse in West Virginia and across our nation.”
U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., echoed Manchin’s support for highlighting substance abuse problems in West Virginia. But McKinley took it a step further, saying there’s a clear link between the state’s substance abuse issues and its economy.
“Joblessness and economic despair are in large part fueling the drug crisis in West Virginia. In the seven years since the beginning of the Obama Administration, our unemployment rate has gone from seventh to dead last in the country. There’s no question this has been a contributing factor in the spread of drug abuse,” McKinley said.
“Consequently, it would be appropriate for the president to meet with coal miners and explain why he has prioritized his agenda above their livelihoods. If the president wants to understand one of the factors making the drug crisis worse, he needs only to look at his own policies on coal.”
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