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Q&A: Myth-Busting Rural Decline, with Ann Eisenberg [1]
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Date: 2024-09-13
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Ann Eisenberg is a law professor at West Virginia University where she researches and teaches courses on environmental law and policy. Her new book, Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies for Resilience, is a myth-busting narrative of the choices that led to rural decline – and the ones could lead to revival.
Enjoy our conversation about open-bed coal trucks, the search for public transit in small towns, and rural innovation, below.
Olivia Weeks, The Daily Yonder: Let’s start with an introduction. Who are you and what do you do?
Ann Eisenberg: I’m Ann, also known as Annie, Eisenberg and I’m a law professor at West Virginia University College of Law, where I also act as research director for the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development. I teach Energy Law, Property Law, and Climate Change Law, and I’ve spent the past decade researching the role law plays in rural economies and development.
DY: I need to ask you about those open-bed coal trucks – the ones that have signs declaring the operators aren’t responsible for any windshield damage they cause. You wrote in your book about noticing those signs in your state and thinking they wouldn’t hold up in court. Is that really true? I swear, a week ago I saw one on the way to my grandpa’s house and wondered how its claim was possible.
AE: So, it is possible that there are some state-specific rules I don’t know about and those signs could be accurate for some reason. But in general, if somebody else hurts you because of a harm they caused that was foreseeable, they are, in fact, responsible. So if I piled a bunch of debris and rocks loosely on the top of my car and drove around, some of it would probably fly off and hurt something or someone. Am I off the hook if I put a sign on my car that says “not responsible”? I don’t see why.
DY: And then secondly, probably more importantly, why do those signs come up so early in your introduction? Why do you think they’re a good metaphor for life in West Virginia?
AE: Those truck signs struck me as a good illustration of how some of these companies and industries operate in the regions where they’ve historically dominated. They’re not trying to minimize harm by telling people to follow at a safe distance, for example, or by just covering the truck beds if they know they’re risky. The translation of those signs is, “If I hurt you, it’s your fault.” Or, “I’m allowed to hurt you and there’s nothing you can do about it.” It may be true, given the way courts and other government institutions have been captured by some industries. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some kind of ridiculous coal-company-truck exception to the classic state doctrine of negligence. But even so, it looks a lot like gaslighting and domination to me – confusing people about their rights and attempting to never have to pay for reducing risk or causing harm.
DY: You wound up in Morgantown in 2014 because you landed an environmental law fellowship at West Virginia University. But you’ve written that your work there “did not involve the typical bread and butter of a law school’s environmental law clinic.” So what did it involve? And how did the nitty-gritty details of that clinic move you to write such an expansive book about the countryside?
Ann Eisenberg. (Photo provided) AE: Most law schools’ environmental clinics are focused on litigation, like bringing suits under environmental statutes or challenging permits for hazardous activities. The Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic at WVU is focused more on land use planning and conservation activities through offering technical support to local governments and environmental non-profits. Working with the clinic was eye-opening to me in a lot of ways.
Around the time I joined in 2014, West Virginia local governments seemed like they had just been abandoned by the federal and state government, after the local populations and communities had been used for coal. The role West Virginia plays in our society really cuts to the very core of how we’ve organized ourselves as a country. People don’t know where their energy comes from, and at what cost. The same goes for food, meat, fibers, and other materials. So the plight of a little cash-strapped municipality in southern West Virginia actually symbolizes quite a bit about our broader patterns of a truly meager social safety net and unsustainable, unjust production and consumption processes.
DY: Your book argues against the inevitability of rural America’s decline. Can you give some examples of specific historical events that, in your view, really shaped the path of disinvestment we’ve been on?
AE: One major development that sticks out for me is transportation deregulation. Our transportation infrastructure was never perfect, of course. But it boggles my mind that small towns throughout the country actually used to have passenger rail service and Congress thought the only viable alternative was Amtrak, which is so inaccessible in so many places. This one is personal to me, as I am often desperately looking for buses, trains, or planes to get to various towns and small cities throughout the country, and often just driving myself is the only way. It also boggles my mind how Congress could take away so many places’ access to trains, buses, and planes, and then we all act befuddled about why these places struggle economically. People will say these modes of transportation declined because of competition from cars, but Congress also pursued policies and infrastructure that helped cars dominate.
There are other big historical developments I return to often, such as consolidation of the agricultural industry and liberalized trade and the subsequent mass closures of manufacturing plants. We talk about these things sometimes, but I want more people to be calling these developments what they are: mistakes and bad choices. Not the benign evolution of modernity.
DY: Lastly, where are you seeing signs of revival?
AE: There is a lot of good stuff happening in rural regions all over the country. Some places are really benefiting from outdoor recreation economies. Others are taking advantage of the many benefits included in the Inflation Reduction Act and related statutes. I think an important principle on the revival front is that there are infinite ways our policies can support rural revitalization, but there is not a one-size-fits-all formula that will fit in all places. One town might benefit from branding itself as the equestrian center of the South, like Aiken, South Carolina, while another might want to go all in on trying to attract retirees, like some towns in Wyoming. Rural localities have always been entrepreneurial. And it’s nice to see more federal support for those efforts today.
This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. Join my email list By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time. Processing… Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
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