Ironically, several small Black Belt Alabama Counties will pay part of the price for the Obama Administration's desire to improve both air quality and Americans' health.
Alabama's Black belt is so named because of the dark soil, though the region is majority African-American too. 80% of Greene County's population is black. That's also true of 73.5% of Sumter, 26.6% of Hale, and 51.1% of Marengo.
The unemployment rates range from 8.1 to 13.4%
The Alabama Power Greene County electric generating plant is located about as far South in the county as you can go.
About 125* of area people who are working are employed at the plant, and half of those jobs will be eliminated, through attrition, says the company.
Alapowco will start using natural gas instead of coal to produce electricity. It takes fewer people to do so, and because of that, and the lower cost of the gas over coal, it is a big cost savings to the company. 60 of the 125 employees will be laid off.
Yet Alapowco spokesmen make it sound like the change being forced on them by the the EPA is terrible!
*Some of the employees may live in surrounding counties, Greene, Sumter or Hale, since Demopolis is located in Northernmost Marengo County.
Alabama's Black belt is so named because of the dark soil, though the region is majority African-American too. 80% of Greene County's population is black. That's also true of 73.5% of Sumter, 26.6% of Hale, and 51.1% of Marengo.
The unemployment rates range from 8.1 to 13.4%The Alabama Power Greene County electric generating plant is located about as far South in the county as you can go.
About 125* of area people who are working are employed at the plant, and half of those jobs will be eliminated, through attrition, says the company.
Alapowco will start using natural gas instead of coal to produce electricity. It takes fewer people to do so, and because of that, and the lower cost of the gas over coal, it is a big cost savings to the company. 60 of the 125 employees will be laid off.
Yet Alapowco spokesmen make it sound like the change being forced on them by the the EPA is terrible!
"Coal continues to be very competitive option," he said. "Natural gas has come down over the years, but it's had a history of being volatile."
Michael Snzjaderman, Alapowco Spokesman
60 more unemployed people will hurt a quad-county section of Alabama that is already the poorest in the state....and they are about the only Democratic majority counties in the state.
The changes will be implemented by 2016, and while there are very good arguments for the Obama Administration's decision, the impact on several small, poor Alabama Counties is undeniable.
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| Blue=Obama win in 2012 |
The changes will be implemented by 2016, and while there are very good arguments for the Obama Administration's decision, the impact on several small, poor Alabama Counties is undeniable.
*Some of the employees may live in surrounding counties, Greene, Sumter or Hale, since Demopolis is located in Northernmost Marengo County.
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