West Virginia pol Walt Helmick: Compared to drug overdoses, coal isn't so bad

This is a Wonk Room cross-post.

At an exclusive coal industry retreat this month, a top West Virginia politician bemoaned the negative image of the state's coal industry in the wake of this year's Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 miners. Looking for a silver lining, Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick (D-WV) contrasted the death toll from mining coal to the deaths from drug overdoses in McDowell County, West Virginia's poorest. In a stream-of-consciousness speech during the...