Participation Type
Roundtable
Session Title
The Power+ Plan and citizen’s movement for just transition in Appalachia and beyond
Session Abstract or Summary
In January 2015, President Obama announced a five-year plan to direct over $1 billion into economic transition and reclamation in Appalachia and elsewhere. The proposed POWER+ plan draws funds from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund and from five federal agencies. Through 2015, the Alliance for Appalachia and other grassroots organizations lobbied local governments to support POWER+. Dozens of county governments across Central Appalachia have passed resolutions in support. This roundtable reflects on this remarkably successful mobilization for just transition policy. It analyzes POWER+ in historical context of past macrostructural shifts in the relationship of the Corporate to the Local State. Many of the panelists have been doing grassroots organizing to mobilize local governments and elected officials to endorse the POWER+ Plan. Others have been involved in earlier struggles to democratize the relationship between federal, state, and local levels of economic planning. The roundtable will seek to apply lessons from earlier eras of struggle to contemporary challenges of neoliberal globalization.
Presentation #1 Title
The Power+ Plan and citizen’s movement for just transition in Appalachia and beyond
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In January 2015, President Obama announced a five-year plan to direct over $1 billion into economic transition and reclamation in Appalachia and elsewhere. The proposed POWER+ plan draws funds from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund and from five federal agencies. Through 2015, the Alliance for Appalachia and other grassroots organizations lobbied local governments to support POWER+. Dozens of county governments across Central Appalachia have passed resolutions in support. This roundtable reflects on this remarkably successful mobilization for just transition policy. It analyzes POWER+ in historical context of past macrostructural shifts in the relationship of the Corporate to the Local State. Many of the panelists have been doing grassroots organizing to mobilize local governments and elected officials to endorse the POWER+ Plan. Others have been involved in earlier struggles to democratize the relationship between federal, state, and local levels of economic planning. The roundtable will seek to apply lessons from earlier eras of struggle to contemporary challenges of neoliberal globalization.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
- Dwight Billings is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, and past president of the Appalachian Studies Association and recent editor of The Journal of Appalachian Studies. He is author of Planters and the Making of a “New South,” and The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia (with Kathleen Blee). He is co-editor of Back Talk from an American Region: Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes and Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the Nineteenth Century.
- Eric Dixon, Coordinator of Policy and Community Engagement, Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, Whitesburg KY. Eric coordinates ACLC’s policy analysis and engagement efforts— particularly around abandoned mine land reclamation, renewable energy, and electric utility issues. Eric graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee in 2013 as a quadruple major in Philosophy, Economics, Sociology, and Global Studies.
- Gabby Gillespie, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, is a community organizer living in Appalachia, VA. Her work is focused on collaborating with community members regionally in visioning just economic transition in Central Appalachia. She is near completion of her Master's degree in Social Responsibility and Sustainable Communities from Western Kentucky University.
- Mary Anne Hitt is director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, which is working to eliminate coal's contribution to global warming and repower the nation with clean energy.
- Bill Price is Senior Organizing Representative, Sierra Club Environmental Justice Program. He has spent most of his life living and working in Appalachia. He currently works with the Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships program of the Sierra Club. He works with the Beyond Coal to Clean Energy campaign and believes that economic transition from the grassroots up is possible.
- Betsy Taylor is a cultural anthropologist who has worked with numerous participatory research projects in central Appalachia and India. She is currently a research faculty member of the Dept of Religion & Culture, Virginia Tech.
- Adam Wells, Economic Diversification Campaign Coordinator, Appalachian Voices. Adam served as Outreach Coordinator for Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and as a field organizer for the Sierra Club. He is committed to bringing clean energy and other economic diversification opportunities to the Virginia coalfields. He lives on his family farm in Wise County
- Jeremy Richardson is a senior energy analyst in the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, conducting analytical work on the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon regulations, and working in other areas of energy research. He is continuing research on economic diversification in his native West Virginia
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Folklorist Mary Hufford has worked over the past three decades in government, academic, and local community settings. As folklife specialist at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress (1982‐2002) she led regional team fieldwork projects in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the southern West Virginia coalfields. From 2002‐2012, she served on the graduate faculty of folklore and folklife at the University of Pennsylvania, directing the Center for Folklore and Ethnography from 2002 to 2008. Her seminars and field practica engaged students with urban gardening and the arts in Philadelphia communities. She has published dozens of articles and reviews in both public and academic venues, including Orion Magazine, Gastronomica, the Journal of American Folklore, Southern Quarterly, Cahiers de Litterature Orale, Cornbread Nation, Social Identities, Western Folklore, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and the Proceedings of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. For a more complete list of her downloadable publications go to her website.
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Adam Hughes joined the SOCM staff in November 2014 as the East Tennessee Organizer. He currently lives in Knoxville, where he serves on the board of the Birdhouse Neighborhood Center. Prior to joining SOCM, he was active in organizing against strip-mining, opposing the funding of mountaintop removal with Hands off Appalachia and training new organizers on the Mountain Justice camp planning collective. Adam studied economics and music at Brandeis University, where he was elected a Student Representative to the Board of Trustees. While at Brandeis, he co-founded Innermost Labs, LLC to design mobile applications for non-profit groups.
The Power+ Plan and citizen’s movement for just transition in Appalachia and beyond
In January 2015, President Obama announced a five-year plan to direct over $1 billion into economic transition and reclamation in Appalachia and elsewhere. The proposed POWER+ plan draws funds from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund and from five federal agencies. Through 2015, the Alliance for Appalachia and other grassroots organizations lobbied local governments to support POWER+. Dozens of county governments across Central Appalachia have passed resolutions in support. This roundtable reflects on this remarkably successful mobilization for just transition policy. It analyzes POWER+ in historical context of past macrostructural shifts in the relationship of the Corporate to the Local State. Many of the panelists have been doing grassroots organizing to mobilize local governments and elected officials to endorse the POWER+ Plan. Others have been involved in earlier struggles to democratize the relationship between federal, state, and local levels of economic planning. The roundtable will seek to apply lessons from earlier eras of struggle to contemporary challenges of neoliberal globalization.
