http://news.yahoo.com/coal-w-va-push-natural-gas-trust-fund-135232219.htmlWhat shocks me is that West Virginia has never done this. Alaska has a Permanent Fund. Texas has one devoted to financing public universities. North Dakota approved one in 2010. All states that are arguably more conservative than West Virginia, so I can't see how it wouldn't have been politically feasible. Had they done something like this for coal 50 years ago, West Virginia might look less like Hunger Games and more like...the nicer parts of Kentucky or Ohio. And maybe Robert Byrd wouldn't have had to earmark so much of the rest of America's money to build things named after him.
